 BORDER NEWS
A 17-year-old involved in an immigrant smuggling ring recently pled guilty to a charge of conspiring to take hostages. Obed Estudillo Martinez worked as a guide and guard for the smuggling ring, which would bring people into the US and hold them until family members could pay for their release. When he is sentenced later this year, he could face up to 121 months in prison.
*********
Last week the US Coast Guard took custody of five stowaways believed to be from Colombia who were found on board a German freighter. The crew of the freighter found the men shortly before docking at the port of Miami. They were all shortly thereafter deported.
*********
Two men were recently arraigned on charges that they kidnapped six undocumented immigrants, including a woman and her three children, and held them for ransom. They were apprehended after a high-speed car chase and raid on a home in Santa Ana, California. If convicted, the men could face life in prison.
*********
Border Patrol agents were involved in a recent shooting on the border in Cochise County, Arizona. No agents were injured, but one person was airlifted to a hospital in Tucson with minor injuries. The FBI is investigating the incident and it is expected that at least one Border Patrol agent will be placed on administrative leave because of the incident.
*********
Following the success of Operation Denial last year, the INS program aimed at disrupting immigrant smuggling between Mexico and Phoenix and Las Vegas, a similar program will be operational this year. Operation Crossroads, in addition to focusing on major airports in the region, will also try to locate drop houses, and to address the growing violence associated with immigrant smuggling. Operation Crossroads will utilize 100 agents, 40 more than Operation Denial.
*********
Two men suspected of smuggling immigrant into the US from Mexico assaulted a Border Patrol agent, but did not seriously injure him. The agent, who was working alone, saw a group of more than 30 people heading north. He approached the group, and was struck by two men in the group. The two men escaped, but the agent was able to apprehend 18 of the migrants.
*********
A Border Patrol agent was seriously injured while chasing a group of suspected undocumented immigrants when he lost control of his vehicle and it rolled over. The agent, who was not wearing a seatbelt, sustained chest and head injuries when he was ejected from the vehicle. Another agent in the same vehicle was wearing a seatbelt and sustained only minor injuries.
*********
Last weekend Border Patrol agents rescued 19 migrants in the mountains of southern California. The rescue came shortly before a major snowstorm hit the region, but the migrants still had to be treated for hypothermia. The Border Patrol has now rescued 34 undocumented immigrants in the area this year.
*********
A South Texas man has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon following the shooting of an undocumented immigrant who was crossing his ranch. The man charged, Pat McCarty, only recently purchased 1,600 acres of land in Zavala County, Texas, on the border with Mexico. The man who was shot, Ramon Flores Hernandez, was taken to a nearby hospital. According to Flores, he and two companions stopped to drink water from a trough on McCarty’s property when McCarty came after them with a gun. His companions ran away, but thinking that McCarty was a Border Patrol agent, Flores remained and was shot just moments later. McCarty then drove him to a nearby store and called an ambulance.
| 
