Posted on 02/21/2009 10:06:03 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
NUEVO LAREDO - Two men and a woman have been charged with alleged involvement in a gunbattle that occurred earlier this week between Mexican Army troops and drug traffickers, officials announced Friday.
The three suspects, who officials said were detained Feb. 17, the day of the gunbattle, were presented by military authorities to the federal prosecutor's office Friday and formally accused of participating in the assault.
On Tuesday, officials would not comment on the exchange of gunfire.
Fernando Rodríguez López, 18, Julio César Ureste Hernández, 22, and Martha Gómez Tovar, 20, have been turned over to the federal attorney general's office, according to a news release issued by the National Defense Department.
After the confrontation on Feb. 17, soldiers reported they confiscated an AK-47, a .32-caliber revolver and 11 empty ammunition clips.
The authorities said the three suspects had in their possession 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of marijuana; 23 marijuana cigarettes; and 160 packets of cocaine.
Officials had declined to give details of the gunfire exchange on Tuesday, but the news release issued Friday said that troops on routine patrol observed a convoy of three vehicles traveling on Luis Caballero and Arteaga streets in the Colonia Hidalgo, to the west of the city.
Troops said the occupants of the vehicles were "acting suspiciously."
When the soldiers ordered the vehicles to stop, machinegun fire broke out from one of the vehicles toward the troops, authorities said.
A Cheyenne was hit by AK-47 ammunition, prompting the soldiers to fire back, according to the news release.
The assailants then tried to run, the soldiers said, trying to cover their escape with more gunfire.
The troops followed the vehicles for several blocks.
Shortly thereafter, the vehicles were found abandoned. Soldiers said they were able to catch Gómez Tovar at the scene.
The two men were arrested a few minutes later.
One of the suspects, Ureste Hernández, was wounded but his injuries were not life-threatening, according to the news release.
Two of the vehicles had Texas plates; information about the third was not immediately available.
(To reach Miguel Timoshenkov, call 728-2583 or e-mail timo1@lmtonline.com)
Los dos Laredos ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
More news from our retired border agents today:
Tucson man dies during scuffle with Border Patrol
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/280906.php
oint Effort by ICE and U.S. Marshalls Service agents leads to apprehension of two foreign murder suspects
http://www.fedagent.com/current_e-report.php#450
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Narcotics team arrest 79-year-old suspected heroin dealer-CA
http://tinyurl.com/bsva66
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Border Patrol: Woman arrested with drugs in car tires-CA
http://tinyurl.com/dbhhoq
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
M3 Rpt: Running gun battle in the streets of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico!
http://tinyurl.com/d2423k
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sex disease, murders on rise in city-NYPD
http://tinyurl.com/an8h3f
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Student faces expulsion for fake drill team guns-CO
-school’s e-mail (be nice):rmcintire@cherrycreekschools.org
http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=109380
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Police say Louisiana port workers faked ID cards
http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20090213/ARTICLES/902139904
I wonder if MIGUEL TIMOSHENKOV a Hispanic Russian? Interesting.
This is all baloney. Mexican drug smugglers don’t use guns. Johnny Sutton told me so!
I just got back from Nueva Laredo on Friday.
Why, in God’s name, are America’s companies still building facilities in that cesspool?
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