Border Patrol Agent Issac Morales, via Gofundme.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

An off-duty Border Patrol agent has died after he was stabbed in the face early Saturday morning in front of his girlfriend in El Paso, Texas. 

Issac Morales, 30, was pronounced dead Wednesday.

Police said Morales was walking to his car in the parking lot of Union Drafthouse Bar shortly before 2 a.m. when 39-year-old Hisais Justo Lopez allegedly stabbed him. Police said the stabbing occurred after Morales identified himself as a Border Patrol agent.

Lopez was arrested and later charged with murder after Morales died.

To donate to the family, visit their Gofundme page. 

By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com

Former Secret Service Agent Thom Bolsch, owner of Saddle River Range in The Woodlands, Tex., has figured out a trap for thieves.

He has installed a custom-made FastFog System from a company in Canada. The system is triggered when a thief breaks in his store. It essentially spews fog and blinds a thief, making it difficult to see the guns, KTRK reports. (See video below)

File photo of guns, via ATF

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The ATF released a disturbing new report that shows national firearm theft and losses in gun shops increased 20% in 2016. 

The report indicates that 18,394 weapons were stolen last year, and a vast majority were pistols, rifles, revolvers and shotguns.

“Losses and thefts of firearms have increased dramatically in terms of the gun stores,” ATF Special Agent Michael Knight told WHNT19 News. 

He added: “Also, what has increased extremely, at a high rate, is the armed robberies, and this is a violent crime. This means that the public could potentially be at arms length of the criminal element who are focusing on these gun stores.”

Georgia led the nation with 1,539 stolen or missing firearms in 2016. Florida followed with 1,260 and Texas with 1,247.

Hawaii, by contrast, reported just three stolen or missing firearms.

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By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Federal authorities believe they may have prevented a right-wing extremist from carrying out a mass shooting in Austin, Texas, this month.

Steven Thomas Boehle, 50, was arrested after Austin police raided a North Austin residence where he had been staying, MyStatesman.com reports. 

The FBI turned up three guns and about 1,100 rounds of ammunition.

An affidavit says a confidential source told the FBI that Boehle “exhibits sovereign citizen extremism ideology.”

Boehle has been charged with making a false statement about trying to buy a firearm. He is barred from buying firearms because of a previous assault conviction in Connecticut.

South Padre Island National Seashore in Texas.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Saving lives is nothing new to Border Patrol agents.

But what two agents found on the beach while patrolling South Padre Island National Seashore in Texas was anything but ordinary.

The agents came across a Kemp Ridley turtle, the most endangered species of sea turtle. Unfortunately, the nestling turtle wasn’t responsive while laying eggs, prompting the agents to call the park service for help.

A biologist showed up and recovered the eggs for incubation.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Federal agents arrested 153 undocumented immigrants and others throughout Texas during a 12-day operation that ended Friday.

The arrests were made in Austin, Waco, San Antonio, Laredo and Harlingen. Of those detained, 138 were men, and 15 were women, ICE said in a news release. 

Of those arrested, 137 had criminal histories that ranged from aggravated sexual assault of a child to drug possession.

The undocumented immigrants came from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Canada and El Salvador.

Here are five summaries of those arrested:

• A 27- year-old woman from Mexico was arrested in Laredo March 20. She has a prior conviction for injury to a child with bodily injury. She was processed and removed to Mexico.
• A 30-year-old man from Mexico was arrested in Austin March 21. He has a prior conviction for delivery of a controlled substance (cocaine). The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting him for illegally re-entering the United States after being deported.
• A 48-year-old man from Mexico was arrested in Harlingen, Texas, March 24. He was convicted of intoxicated manslaughter with a vehicle. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting him for illegally re-entering the United States after being deported.
• A 20-year-old man from Guatemala was arrested in San Antonio March 23. He was convicted of injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury. He remains in ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge.
• A 46-year-old man from Mexico was arrested in San Antonio March 31. He was convicted of the following crimes: aggravated sexual assault of a child (first degree felony), 2 DUIs and assault. He is in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

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By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

More than 25 offenders who were reporting for community service Sunday morning in Fort Worth, Texas, were detained by ICE agents over undocumented immigration statuses.

The community service program is designed for people on probation.

ICE agents detained 26 offenders who are accused of being undocumented, the Forth Worth Star-Telegram reports. 

According to David McClelland, chief of staff for Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn, the undocumented immigrants had convictions of high-level misdemeanors and low-level felonies.

ICE declined to give details.

“ICE officers are conducting ongoing immigration enforcement operations in North Texas. No further details are available until the conclusion of this operation,” Carl Rusnok, ICE spokesman for the Dallas region, said in an emailed statement. “ICE routinely conducts immigration enforcement operations locally and nationwide which help improve overall public safety by removing criminal aliens from our communities, and ultimately from our country.

The offenders were escorted into a bus.

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Stephen Marcus Gilbert, 31

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A 31-year-old man accused of killing one person and injuring another in a shooting in downtown Flint, Mich., was tracked by the FBI using Facebook.

Authorities said they tracked Stephen Marcus Gilbert to Texas after a task force saw on his Facebook page that he had recently visited a woman in Arlington, MLive reports. 

The FBI, however, still had not located Gilbert as of Tuesday morning.

An apartment manager reported that he saw Gilbert walking toward the woman’s apartment.

Gilbert has bee charged with first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder, felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and four counts of felony firearm, according to court records.