Report reveals ‘disturbing trend’ of brazen attacks against border security by gangs, drug and human traffickers

Article author: 
Jana Winter
Article publisher: 
Fox News
Article date: 
30 July 2014
Article category: 
National News
Medium
Article Body: 

...A weekly report distributed by a Texas state agency to senior law enforcement officials paints a grim picture of the Mexican border, where authorities regularly confront illegal immigrant gang members and draw automatic gunfire from across the Rio Grande, and where local, state and federal authorities fight a never-ending battle against drug smugglers.

The most recent Border Operations Sector Assessment report compiled by the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Border Security Operations Center, dated July 25 and obtained by FoxNews.com, details local and federal authorities encountering smugglers carrying millions of dollars’ worth of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine, some of which was found in vehicles filled with biblical passages and religious items; federal agents being assaulted and shot at; gang members brazenly approaching people in their homes; and ranch workers witnessing men crossing into the U.S. wearing camouflage and carrying long guns and automatic weapons...

In the week of July 16-23 alone, according to the report, U.S. authorities apprehended 6,028 illegal immigrants [aliens], 4,152 of whom were not from Mexico. Most came from Central America. But there also were people from Russia, Morocco, China, Cuba and India, among other nation

Cabrera, the union rep for the Rio Grande Valley Sector, the most heavily trafficked portion of the border, was shown a copy of the report by FoxNews.com. He contends the increase in attacks against law enforcement and the compilation of such events--including the game warden assault that occurred in Cabrera's sector -- should have been shared with him and his colleagues. But only higher-up officials receive the weekly reports, he said...

The 83-page report for July 16-23 reveals, among other things, that authorities seized $478,879 in U.S. currency, recovered more than seven tons of marijuana (street value: $6.35 million) and turned up more than a million dollars’ worth of cocaine and methamphetamine...

 

Read the full report: Border Operations Sector Assessment, 25 July 2014.

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