Texas sheriff labels shootout ?spillover violence?
McALLEN, Texas (AP) ? A South Texas border sheriff who long downplayed claims of Mexican drug violence spilling across the Rio Grande into the United States said Tuesday he always knew it could happen and that his department was prepared.
Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said he doesn't plan changes after one of his deputies was shot in a confrontation with kidnappers sent by the Gulf cartel to retrieve a stolen drug load near Edinburg. One suspect died in the exchange of gunfire.
"That's why we train," Trevino said, shortly before six men involved were arraigned on marijuana possession charges, with other more serious charges expected to follow. "And that's why we have such close working relationships with all the federal agencies. So no, nothing has changed. We're still prepared. We still train every day."
The events that led to Sunday's shooting began in early September when Mexican authorities found Samuel Flores Borrego, also known as "El Metro 3," shot dead near Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, in what appeared to be an attack by members of his own cartel. He was found along with the body of a police officer.
The killing put Gulf cartel operations in the city into "chaos" leading some gang members and their enemies to steal tons of marijuana, Trevino said. Once a new boss was in place they set about finding their stolen drugs. One load was traced to Hidalgo County where members of a violent street gang Partido Revolucionario Mexicano, Mexican Revolutionary Party, were selling it.
The Gulf cartel sent a four-man team to recover the drugs. They arranged a drug buy and kidnapped two gang members in an effort to find their stash house, Trevino said. One person got away and called authorities.
Deputies responded and pulled over a pickup not knowing if victims or suspects were inside.
"We pull them over and that's when everything goes to hell," Trevino said. They were armed with an assault rifle and a 9mm handgun.
Sheriff's deputy Hugo Rodriguez was shot three times with the handgun, Trevino said. His bulletproof vest stopped two of the shots, including one just above his heart. Doctors were still deciding whether to remove the third shot from Rodriguez's femur, Trevino said.
"The shooting of my deputy, the kidnapping and all that stuff has a direct link to what happened in Mexico so it's a cause and effect type of thing," he said. That clear link led Trevino to label this the first spillover violence his agency had investigated. He conceded there could be others where his investigators just didn't establish the direct link.
Trevino had been critical of those who, in his view, exaggerated the extent spillover violence and painted the Texas side of the border as a war zone. Two years ago he derided Gov. Rick Perry's announcement that he would send small teams of elite Texas Rangers to lie in wait for drug smugglers along rural stretches of the border as "an obvious political ploy" and other occasions has accused the media of stoking fear.
But incidents with apparently similar circumstances have occurred in the county.
In the summer of 2008, Jaime Gonzalez Duran, known as "El Hummer," a founding member of the Zetas, sent a team in Hidalgo County to kidnap drug traffickers who were not paying a tax to the cartel.
Gonzalez Duran wanted "people in the drug business to know that the cartel could operate on this (the U.S.) side," Gerardo Zamora Espinoza testified in the trial of one of his accomplices in the kidnapping ring in January 2010. Zamora Espinoza said he had been involved with as many as seven kidnappings with the group.
The case ultimately moved through the federal system, but the kidnapping of a local convenience store clerk who was believed to have been later killed in Mexico was initially investigated by Trevino's department.
"I don't know that we ever had any direct links to the Mexican cartels (in that case)," Trevino said. "We just never made that connection. If there's documentation to show now that it was cartel sanctioned directly from Mexico like this one was then maybe so. Yeah, absolutely."
McALLEN, Texas (AP) ? A South Texas border sheriff who long downplayed claims of Mexican drug violence spilling across the Rio Grande into the United States said Tuesday he always knew it could happen and that his department was prepared.
Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said he doesn't plan changes after one of his deputies was shot in a confrontation with kidnappers sent by the Gulf cartel to retrieve a stolen drug load near Edinburg. One suspect died in the exchange of gunfire.
"That's why we train," Trevino said, shortly before six men involved were arraigned on marijuana possession charges, with other more serious charges expected to follow. "And that's why we have such close working relationships with all the federal agencies. So no, nothing has changed. We're still prepared. We still train every day."
The events that led to Sunday's shooting began in early September when Mexican authorities found Samuel Flores Borrego, also known as "El Metro 3," shot dead near Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, in what appeared to be an attack by members of his own cartel. He was found along with the body of a police officer.
The killing put Gulf cartel operations in the city into "chaos" leading some gang members and their enemies to steal tons of marijuana, Trevino said. Once a new boss was in place they set about finding their stolen drugs. One load was traced to Hidalgo County where members of a violent street gang Partido Revolucionario Mexicano, Mexican Revolutionary Party, were selling it.
The Gulf cartel sent a four-man team to recover the drugs. They arranged a drug buy and kidnapped two gang members in an effort to find their stash house, Trevino said. One person got away and called authorities.
Deputies responded and pulled over a pickup not knowing if victims or suspects were inside.
"We pull them over and that's when everything goes to hell," Trevino said. They were armed with an assault rifle and a 9mm handgun.
Sheriff's deputy Hugo Rodriguez was shot three times with the handgun, Trevino said. His bulletproof vest stopped two of the shots, including one just above his heart. Doctors were still deciding whether to remove the third shot from Rodriguez's femur, Trevino said.
"The shooting of my deputy, the kidnapping and all that stuff has a direct link to what happened in Mexico so it's a cause and effect type of thing," he said. That clear link led Trevino to label this the first spillover violence his agency had investigated. He conceded there could be others where his investigators just didn't establish the direct link.
Trevino had been critical of those who, in his view, exaggerated the extent spillover violence and painted the Texas side of the border as a war zone. Two years ago he derided Gov. Rick Perry's announcement that he would send small teams of elite Texas Rangers to lie in wait for drug smugglers along rural stretches of the border as "an obvious political ploy" and other occasions has accused the media of stoking fear.
But incidents with apparently similar circumstances have occurred in the county.
In the summer of 2008, Jaime Gonzalez Duran, known as "El Hummer," a founding member of the Zetas, sent a team in Hidalgo County to kidnap drug traffickers who were not paying a tax to the cartel.
Gonzalez Duran wanted "people in the drug business to know that the cartel could operate on this (the U.S.) side," Gerardo Zamora Espinoza testified in the trial of one of his accomplices in the kidnapping ring in January 2010. Zamora Espinoza said he had been involved with as many as seven kidnappings with the group.
The case ultimately moved through the federal system, but the kidnapping of a local convenience store clerk who was believed to have been later killed in Mexico was initially investigated by Trevino's department.
"I don't know that we ever had any direct links to the Mexican cartels (in that case)," Trevino said. "We just never made that connection. If there's documentation to show now that it was cartel sanctioned directly from Mexico like this one was then maybe so. Yeah, absolutely."
