By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Things did not go the way Gerardo Castillo-Chavez and Armado Garcia had hoped in Laredo, Texas, on Wednesday. Both men saw guilty verdicts returned on all charges against them, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced. Castillo-Chavez, a 25-year-old from Tamaulipas, Mexico, was convicted of “conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Houston ATF agents hit a small jackpot recently when they raided the home used by a Mexican cartel member. The local KPRC-TV reports that agents seized dozens of guns and 45 pounds of marijuana. Agents were lead to the home by Juan Garcia, who had been arrested after purchasing high-powered rifles…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The Mexican drug cartels just aren’t selling drugs to make cash. AHN News reports that the cartels are increasingly extorting protection money from retail stores on the U.S. side of the border. Citing the DEA, the news agency reports that businesses often don’t report the extortion demands because they employe illegal…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A man charged in the Feb. 15 murder in Mexico of ICE agent Jaime Zapata and the attempted murder of ICE agent Victor Avila has been extradited from Mexico to the U.S. to face trial. The Justice Department announced the charges and the extradition on Wednesday of Julian Zapata Espinoza, aka…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Despite fiery rhetoric from congressional Republicans, it appears that botched gun-walking programs have not completely soured relations between Mexican and US federal law enforcement. Fox News Latino cites a Spanish-language news report that at least 80 former employees of the Mexican government are currently working for US agencies as spies. The La…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com On the one year anniversary of the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, the family issued a statement that included a sharp rebuke of ATF and the Justice Department. “Brian’s death has been extremely difficult to accept. As most know, we had to learn from the news media that…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Federal budget cuts have manifested themselves in a multitude of ways already. Now, dramatically, the Obama administration plans next year to cut the number of National Guard troops patrolling the US-Mexico border by at least half, reports the Washington Times. Though the White House is not announcing the plans yet, Republican…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A crackdown on drug smugglers has resulted in a dramatic jump in the use of sophisticated tunnels under the Mexico-U.S. border, Reuters reports. Reuters reports that authorities discovered more than 100 tunnels during President Felipe Calderon’s five years in office. That number is double the ones found over the previous 15…
