Posted on 11/03/2011 8:44:56 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott has penned a letter to President Barack Obama requesting he take action following the recent Mexican drug cartel activity in Texas.
The letter cites some of the incidents that have occurred in the Rio Grande Valley in the past couple of weeks, including the arrest of three Gulf Cartel leaders — two in Cameron County. It also mentions incidents that occurred in El Paso and Fort Hancock.
Abbott writes of the criminal organizations: "Their presence in our country is more evidence that the cartels increasingly view the porous border as no more than a line on a map. And if your administration continues to fail to secure the border against this threat, it is only a matter of time before American lives are lost."
The attorney general’s letter did not mention last year’s double homicide in Brownsville, where two men were found in a truck riddled with bullets along FM 511.
Brownsville police linked the September 2010 homicides to the Mexican drug cartels and reported that one of the victims was the younger brother of a former Gulf Cartel member. Three suspects in the double homicide remain at large. Authorities believe they are hiding out in Mexico.
Cameron County Judge Carlos H. Cascos said Abbott’s failure to include the Brownsville incident is probably an oversight, perhaps because the murders did not receive as much coverage as the recent events in Hidalgo County. He also believes that local officials have sent mixed messages on whether cartel violence was actually occurring in Brownsville.
"It’s not to alarm people," Cascos said of discussing the violence. "It is to make people aware that there are concerns. ... It (the letter) brings what I have been hoping for, acknowledgement that we have a problem so we can all speak with one voice, with one drum beat that we need assistance to keep some of these issues from escalating."
As of late Wednesday afternoon the White House had not received the letter, so no comment could be made, a White House official said.
On Sunday, an Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputy was shot and wounded during a traffic stop. Authorities allege the shooter, who was killed in the exchange of fire, was one of two gang members in the stopped vehicle who had been tasked by the Gulf Cartel with recovering a stolen load of drugs from suspected dealers. The other alleged gang member — the vehicle’s driver — was seriously wounded in the shooting, authorities said.
Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño termed it the first reported spillover violence in his county. Treviño could not be reached for comment on the letter.
Abbott’s letter to Obama continues: "I implore you to aggressively confront this escalating threat. The safety and security of the Americans you have pledged to defend is at risk because of the cartel battles spilling across our border. To protect American lives, your administration must immediately dedicate more manpower to border security."
Just this past week in Brownsville, federal and local authorities were involved in pursuits in the downtown area in which they were chasing alleged smugglers. A load of marijuana was confiscated in one of the incidents.
Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia said he believes there’s a " little bit better chance now" of the South Texas border possibly getting the resources and the attention it needs because of Abbott’s letter outlining the number of spillover violence cases.
"I think we all can agree that it is happening. Is it happening more in other places? Yeah, definitely so. I think for Cameron County we are fortunate that it is happening not often as it is in Hidalgo County or the El Paso area. ... That doesn’t mean that we won’t experience all of a sudden a high number of incidents like this," he said.
Garcia hopes the federal government will allocate funding to local law enforcement agencies, which are the first line of defense at the border and get the first calls pertaining to shootings or shootouts within their jurisdictions.
"Local law enforcement can be an asset to securing our borders. ... Until we are given the resources, we can only do so much. We want to be part of this, we know we can do more, but where is the investment in local law enforcement?" Garcia said.
https://www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?id=3888
BW ping
Hey. Atty General Abbott. Obama is a spineless vote sucking, minority pandering bozo. He is a voter chupacabra. Texas needs to xerox the Arizona and Alabama laws as they regard ILLEGAL immigration. Cut Obama and his DOJ out of the loop and ignore any court orders to the contrary.
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