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…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com The DEA sting operation involving the laundering of money to drug cartels that has angered some Republican congressmen actually dates back to the Reagan administration, according to the Justice Department. Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Ronald Weich sent a letter to Rep. Darrel Issa–the Republic congressman leading the charges against…
Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Shades of Operation Fast and Furious? DEA agents have laundered or smuggled–or, “let walk”–millions of dollars in drug proceeds in an effort to trace the money to the end recipients, reports the New York Times. The DEA sought to understand how cartels moved their money, where assets were kept and, ultimately, who…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com The latest in a series of secret passages used to smuggle drugs from Mexico to the US was found on Tuesday, linking warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana, reports the Associated Press. “It is clearly the most sophisticated tunnel we have ever found,” Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and…
