Free Republic

Valley leaders express disappointment following vote HARLINGEN - "Horrible," "wrong," "crazy" and "extremely disappointing" were just a few of the words some local residents used about Congress' approval of a border fence. The Senate on Friday authorized 700 miles of new fencing on the southern border. One of its longest spans would stretch 200 miles from Brownsville to Laredo. The fence bill was passed by the House two weeks ago, and with the Senate's authorization Friday, the measure is now on its way to President Bush. "It's like when East Germany built a wall between West Berlin and East Berlin,"...

NUEVO LAREDO — For all the beefed-up enforcement along the border, the militia-like group of drug cartel enforcers known as the Zetas appears stronger than ever, a result of better training, successful recruiting in Central America and continued desertions from the Mexican military, U.S. intelligence officials say.The Zetas have again become entrenched in Nuevo Laredo, and they practically control the movement of people through an intricate web of spies, checkpoints and skillful use of technology, provoking an extraordinary cross-border human exodus, U.S. and Mexican authorities say. Last year, U.S. and Mexican authorities reported that the number of Zetas was falling...

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — For some time now, this city's gunfire has found its echo in silence. Even the border city's freewheeling and competitive news media — until this year the noisy barometers of an ongoing struggle between two drug cartels — have abandoned their traditional role. A Dangerous Beat At crime scenes, local cops threaten to take reporters' notes, film. State police do not issue news releases or comment on gunbattles or suspected drug-related crimes. The attorney general's office will not comment on crime. Cartels have threatened reporters directly if they write critical stories. Some journalists spy for the...

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president-elect says murder and mayhem fueled by drug smuggling have overwhelmed the governments of the nation’s capital and key states across the country. Felipe Calderón said the wave of bloodshed knows no politics; it is ravaging state governments controlled by each of Mexico’s three major parties. He singled out Mexico City, the northern states of Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, the southern state of Guerrero and his home state of Michoacan, as being especially hard-hit. “It seems to me that drug violence has overwhelmed the governments of the PAN, the PRI and the PRD,” Calderón said in a...

Mayor Raul Salinas praised the Laredo Police Department for a quick arrest in response to gunmen running through a Target Greatland on Monday night, but as of Tuesday evening, no details had been released.Two men were taken into custody at the scene, but city officials remain tight-lipped on the specifics, and Monday night police would not confirm an arrest had been made. At a news conference Tuesday morning, Police Chief Agustin Dovalina III said details were still sketchy and he would not divulge specifics so as not to jeopardize the investigation. “I am very proud to boast about the fact...

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — A wild, 30-minute shootout reportedly involving bazookas and a grenade invaded the streets of an upscale neighborhood here, though details were few. Mexican and U.S. sources familiar with the incident Friday night said three people were killed and four injured, but neither local nor federal officials would give an official version of events. No newspaper in Nuevo Laredo printed an article about the incident, which according to sources involved a bazooka, a grenade and assault rifles. News of it was published only in the newspaper El Norte of Monterrey and the Web site EnLineaDirecta.info. El Norte...

WASHINGTON — Much of the 700-mile fence that the Senate began considering Wednesday would be built along the Texas-Mexico border, with one of the largest sections stretching 200 miles from Laredo to Brownsville.The fence was declared a step toward border security by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who previously supported a comprehensive Senate bill that gave a shot at citizenship to the 11 million to 12 million people living in the country illegally. The new proposal met resistance from some of the state’s members in Congress and border officials. “I oppose the wall,” said Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas, who spent...

Mexico City, Sep 18 (EFE).- Mexico said Monday that a recent U.S. complaint about surging violence along countries' shared border "was not well-considered" and it had taken great effort to convince Washington that security in the region is a shared responsibility. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez thus presented the government's reaction to a statement issued last Thursday by U.S. Ambassador Antonio Garza, who said that growing crime in Mexico was affecting bilateral relations and complained about corruptikon in some of the Mexican security forces. Derbez told radio program "Enfoque" that "on occasion, statements come out (from U.S. officials) that...

Jeffers MacArthur DodgeCordially Invites You to the Los Angeles Premiere ofSee the Trailer Thursday August 31, 2006The AMC Theater Burbank Town Center 8 .Reception* 5:30pm andMovie 7:30pm *The Reception is a cash bar and Romano'sserves great Italian Food, so arrive hungry. Romano's Macaroni Grill Restaurant102 E. Magnolia Blvd. Burbank, CA 91502-1715 (818) 729-9405. Producers VIP Dinner Party 9:00pm (First 5 Only)   For more info about this movie premierecall (310)841-0676 or Email: BorderWar@VoteDodge.comFundraiser to Elect Jeffers Dodge 2006 #1282661

The head of the Border Patrol said Wednesday he doesn’t want members of the Minuteman Project working near his agents when they come to the Laredo area next month.The civilian group, which reports illegal immigrants to immigration authorities, is expected to start patrolling the border in the Laredo area on Sept. 11 and continue through Nov. 7. Acting Chief Patrol Agent Reynaldo Garza of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Laredo Sector said he can’t prevent the civilians from coming to Laredo, but said they won’t be allowed to interfere with official business. John Cristian Esquivel, deputy chief, said the...

EL PASO — An annual Border Security Conference here didn't attract the crowds of a Star Trek convention or the attention that a medical convention might, but maybe it should have. The more than 100 participants from the private and public sectors discussed ways to secure our country's borders, citing specific examples and models, a topic of importance at the national level. The third annual conference, with the theme "Security through regional, national and international cooperation," was hosted jointly by the University of Texas at El Paso and Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso. Underscoring the importance of the conference, two...

NUEVO LAREDO — After a respite of nearly two weeks in the violence that has plagued the Sister City, the head of the local emergency headquarters disappeared under ominous circumstances and a man was found dead in an apparently unrelated incident. C-4 chief José Luis Jácome Moreno, 60, was heading to work Tuesday morning when he was picked up by unknown men at the bus stop near his home in the Infonavit neighborhood, officials said. The panic button on his police radio was punched at about 6:20 a.m., alerting C-4 as well as other law enforcement agencies of an officer...

RIO BRAVO — Empty cocaine packages littered the tall grass like candy wrappers along the bank of the Rio Grande in El Cenizo, a small but growing city 15 miles southeast of Laredo. On closer inspection, each of the 30 or so packages revealed layers — foil, plastic kitchen wrap and brown packing tape. Two large flour sacks were discarded nearby, each with a car seatbelt ingeniously tied diagonally across it for no-hassle transporting. The drugs were long gone, their wrappings not just evidence of a successful crime but another artifact in an outdoor museum of discarded clothes, inner tubes...

Officers outgunned by criminals from Mexico, he testifies MISSION - Drug and smuggling gangs controlling Mexican border territory are proving an increasingly violent and sophisticated threat to Texas border law enforcement, Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzales told a state Senate committee Wednesday. "The weapons we possess are like water guns compared to what they have," Gonzales said. "They're trying to scare us away from the border." Gonzales, representing the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition, was one of more than a dozen witnesses to testify before the Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security. The panel was in South Texas for a hearing...

REYNOSA - Mexican police are scrambling to solve three unrelated murders in three days that include a decapitated woman and two gunmen tied to drug traffickers who may have fled to the United States. Police found the latest victim, a decapitated woman, early Thursday morning. The body was lying in the middle of Calle Rio Sabinas, near the corner of the road to Rivareña, said Leonel Lozano Gutierrez, head of the Tamaulipas police in Reynosa. A truck ran over what appeared to be a pile of trash at 1 a.m., Gutierrez said. It was the woman's body covered in a...

NUEVO LAREDO — Another group of officers from the Special Police of Tamaulipas arrived here Friday night.Known as PET, their purpose is to deal with robberies and similar crimes. The 60 officers were sent by the Tamaulipas state governor to supplement local police efforts. Crime statistics in Nuevo Laredo have shown an increase in robberies, thus the response to send these officers from the state capital, Ciudad Victoria. Besides the 60 officers, the crime-fighting effort includes two automobiles, 10 pick-up trucks and one armored car. The group had not started work as of the weekend. A municipal police officer, who...

NUEVO LAREDO Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, the PAN candidate for president, vowed to rescue Nuevo Laredo from organized crime as he made his first campaign swing through the Sister City on Saturday, eight days before the election."I will use all the force of the federal government, and they will pay for their crimes," Calderón told the cheering crowd of several thousand supporters. "My hand will not tremble in ensuring the safety of the people," he said, declaring that as the nations next president he would restore order on the border. "We will clean house from top to bottom." Calderón said the...

NUEVO LAREDO — The Tamaulipas director of public safety, José Yves Soberón Tijerina, disclosed Thursday that at least two CERESO II guards have been arrested as suspects in connection with Tuesday’s jailbreak in which four people were killed and 11 prisoners got away.Soberón Tijerina was among a Ciudad Victoria delegation of state officials, headed by Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernández Flores, to look into the situation at the local Centro de Readaptacion Social No. 2 south of town. Another troubling issue is the fact that the detention facility is located within walking distance of a Nuevo Laredo elementary school that houses...

NUEVO LAREDO - State police found two bodies and two injured men in a house on the city's west side early Tuesday during a sweep of the neighborhood as a result of a failed ambush on federal police two hours earlier.The injured men were taken to Hospital General at about 4:30 a.m., and less than 30 minutes later, an armed group of men charged into the emergency room and demanded to know where the wounded men where. "They threatened the medical personnel and nurses," said hospital director Mario Arreola. He said the staff refused to tell the attackers where the...

NUEVO LAREDO - Four prisoners and a visitor were killed during a daring escape from CERESO II on Tuesday afternoon that left two of the dead men near the entrance to an elementary school across the street.About eight armed inmates made it outside the prison and ran to the school, hunkering down inside the gate, where they opened fire on guards that were trying to stop the breakout. Between five to six men managed to escape, and they are believed to be armed and dangerous, police said. A sixth victim in the escape, a pregnant woman, was in serious condition...

McALLEN — The FBI has posted a reward of up to $5 million for another Mexican drug cartel suspect. The reward promotes Jorge Eduardo "El Cos" Costilla Sanchez, believed to be a leader of the Matamoros-based Gulf Cartel that controls most narcotics shipments into South Texas, into the top echelon of wanted men in the bloody world of drug smuggling. It's the same price that's on the heads of other notorious narcotraffickers wanted along the U.S.-Mexico border, such as Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, alleged head of the powerful Juarez Cartel, and Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, who's...

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — The mysterious machinations of a drug kingpin serving time in a Mexico City prison cell could have an unlikely effect, federal officials say: peace along the border. Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who is believed to run Mexico's violent Gulf Cartel from prison, orchestrating from afar much of the drug war that has claimed 120 lives here this year alone, is trying to oust one of his deputies, U.S. law officers say. And the infighting his efforts have caused could radically alter the deadly dynamics between the cartel and its archrival, the Sinaloa Cartel, possibly quelling their bloody...

LAREDO — Underwear, empty water bottles, T-shirts, deflated inner tubes and other refuse that line the banks of the Rio Grande here are solid evidence of illegal immigration, said supervisory Border Patrol agent Roberto García. “You can see why they would put up a fence,” he said while surveying the litter strewn through the South Texas brush. Not far from here is one mile worth of fencing that separates the Laredo Community College from the river. It stands less than a quarter mile from the river, college officials said, in order to enclose the former military fort with a fourth...

WESLACO — It’s a horrific, perhaps all-too common scenario. Masked men armed with high-powered weapons storm a home and often gag and beat the homeowner — or anyone — in sight. Most perpetrators know exactly what they are looking for: sometimes large amounts of cash, sometimes bundles of drugs. Other times, in stranger-to-stranger invasions, perpetrators target homes in affluent neighborhoods that appear to hold valuables inside. Since last July, there have been eight reported cases of home invasions — seven of them violent. In half of the reported cases, there was some type of relationship between the victim and the...

One man is dead and three others in custody following an early morning shootout Friday in Nuevo Laredo between state police and drug cartel gunmen believed responsible for at least 10 homicides here — including the death of a local police officer Thursday night. The firefight, which started about 1 a.m., ignited when a team of state police officers approached a home they suspected was used by the men who hours earlier had killed police officer Jesus Segovia Sanchez, authorities said. Two cartel members were arrested and another injured in the early morning melee. One state police officer also was...

-Authorities say gunmen armed with AK-47 assault rifles killed a police officer in the violent Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo. Police spokesman Raul Galindo Vera says the gunmen riddled Jesus Segovia Sanchez with bullets late Thursday night. Segovia's partner, Sergio Omar Escobedo was wounded in the shootout. He was listed in stable condition at a hospital after being shot four times, once in the side, once in the right leg, and once in each arm. Police are investigating and have made no arrests. Segovia's the eleventh law enforcement officer to be gunned down this year in the city across...

WASHINGTON -- I do not doubt the president's sincerity in wanting to humanize and regularize the lives of America's 11 million illegal aliens. But good intentions are not enough. For decades, the well-traveled road from the Mexican border to the barrios of Los Angeles has been paved with such intentions. They begat the misguided immigration policy that created the crisis that necessitated the speech that purports to offer, finally, the ``comprehensive'' solution. Hardly. The critical element -- border enforcement -- is farcical. President Bush promises to increase the number of border agents. That was promised in the Simpson-Mazzoli amnesty legislation...

NUEVO LAREDO - Three cellmates at Cereso No. 2 were found stabbed to death inside the cell they shared Thursday morning, and no suspects had been identified as of late Thursday. Marco Antonio Flores Ibarra, Ramiro Ramos Guzmán and Juan Miguel Rivera Palomares died at the state prison located in the southern end of the city. A fourth inmate, José Antonio Esquivel, was sent to Hospital General with serious injuries. The dead men were discovered at about 11:20 a.m. during a routine check by the guards. The injured man was found lying in the hallway outside the cell. Flores Ibarra...

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — The unceasing wave of violence in this city claimed the lives of two state police officers Tuesday, including the head of the homicide division. Juan Gonzalez and Rodolfo Eguia had just finished lunch at a local restaurant about 12:15 p.m. and were leaving in a green Jeep Cherokee when gunmen ambushed them, authorities said. The Jeep then crashed into the corner of a building next to the restaurant, knocking out a large chunk of bricks and concrete that landed on the hood. No arrests were made, and investigators didn't have a description of the assailants' vehicle....

NUEVO LAREDO - Monday turned out to be deadlier than first reported in the Sister City, with two more deaths bringing the day's toll to six - one of the worst days in an already bad year. And when yet another young man, this one wearing a student uniform, was found dead of a single gun shot Tuesday night, the week was off to an ominous beginning. The crime-ravaged city's homicide count is now at least 104. At this time last year, there had been only 48 deaths reported. Officials already had listed four dead men in two separate cases...

On one hand, Americans were outraged and appalled by the May 1 immigrant demonstrations that clogged streets and virtually closed down some cities. Law-abiding citizens saw lawbreakers who not only seemed to feel justified in their criminal behavior, but also believed they ought to be rewarded for it. On the other hand, Americans are more infuriated and disgusted with their duly elected government officials in both legislative and administrative branches for not enforcing the law and protecting the rights of citizens. President Bush and the weak-kneed GOP have deservedly come under fire. If our sovereign nation is to survive, however,...

NUEVO LAREDO - Five city police officers and two civilians were injured, some seriously, when unknown gunmen opened fire on a popular seafood restaurant Wednesday afternoon. The Titanic, a small restaurant near the intersection of Venustiano Carranza and Reynosa streets, was filled with patrons when gunmen armed with AK-47s strafed the place at about 2 p.m. It's the third attack on city police officers in less than 30 days; two have died. The injured officiers were identified as José Cristóbal Barrios, Manuel Ramírez, Gabriel de la Cruz, Pedro Martínez and Alberto Coss. They were taken to Hospital San José by...

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons on a pair of municipal police officers Tuesday afternoon, killing one and wounding another as they guarded a police official's home. Officer Jesus de la Cruz died at the scene. Officer Juan Flores Quiroga was taken to a local hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. The officers were staked out in a truck as bodyguards in front of the home of Assistant Police Chief Guillermo Marquez when the unidentified assailants drove by in a gray pickup at about 4:45 p.m., said a state investigator at the scene. Investigators...

NUEVO LAREDO - Two men lost their lives a few hours apart in unrelated shooting incidents over the weekend. The shootings bring the death toll in this border city to at least 87 for the year. Jesus Guajardo street, between Mina and Gutierrez, was the scene of Saturday's shooting. The city's emergency response center, known as C-4, received a call at 8 p.m. concerning a body lying inside of an automobile repair shop in the Infonavit neighborhood. The body was identified as Eduardo Rodriguez Salinas, 28, by his wife, Rebeca Margarita de Salinas, 24. She reportedly told State Ministerial Police...

NUEVO LAREDO - An uneasy peace that settled over the border during Easter weekend was ripped apart Tuesday with the shooting deaths of two state police officers and a 14-year-old boy. Catholic leaders had publicly pleaded with criminals to respect Semana Santa - Holy Week - and refrain from violence. Four people were killed last Tuesday, but there had been no deaths reported the rest of Holy Week. Barely eight hours after Easter Sunday ended, however, a 14-year-old boy was shot dead near the railroad tracks on the western side of the city. And in less than another eight hours,...

NUEVO LAREDO - Three people died violently in less than 24 hours in the Sister City, pushing the homicide toll closer to 80. Reports of the death came as Mexican Consul Daniel Hernández Joseph released a new border security agreement signed by the consul and U.S. Consul Michael Yoder, once again pledging cooperation between the two nations to resolve the crime problem. The two men who were shot dead early Monday near the intersection of Luis Donaldo Colosio and the airport highway had Laredo addresses; The Associated Press reported they were Mexican citizens who had green cards and were living...

NUEVO LAREDO - Three Nuevo Laredo men were shot to death in two separate shootings Friday in the area of Colonia Hidalgo and Colonia Militar. Nuevo Laredo ministerial police reported late Friday that they did not have any suspects. In one shooting, an individual between 20 and 25 years of age - identified as Carlos "El Negro" Rueda - was found dead inside a house at 916 Tomas F. de la Garza in Colonia Hidalgo. Officers at the scene said Rueda had been shot several times. Investigators recovered an automatic weapon and spent bullets from the street surface. Officers said...

NUEVO LAREDO - Three men were found hanged in the same cell at the city's second state prison on Thursday night. Two of the victims, Marco Eloy and Nelson Gonzalez Olivares, were brothers. The third victim, Hugo Contreras Garcia, was not related to the brothers. Authorities were called to the scene at about 8 p.m. after an emergency call was made from the jail. The bodies were found in section 7, cell F4, but police did not release any further information. Prison director Roberto Montes refused to make any comments to the media. Ricardo Mancillas Castillo, an official with the...

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is asking the Mexican government to make a greater effort in finding Americans who disappeared in Nuevo Laredo. Cornyn sent a letter to U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza in Mexico on Wednesday requesting he put more pressure on the Mexican government to assist the families and friends of the 27 Americans from Laredo who are missing. "The good work of U.S. law enforcement will never be enough without serious commitment and strong efforts from Mexico," Cornyn wrote. "I therefore respectfully request that you call upon the Mexican government to assist the families and friends of missing persons...

<p>The deployment of federal troops along the U.S.-Mexico border in October netted a 60 percent increase in apprehensions of illegal aliens by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, a congressional report says.</p> <p>The report given this month to the Senate Armed Services Committee says a Texas-based Stryker-armored reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition squadron helped CBP agents capture 2,000 illegal border crossers in New Mexico and Arizona.</p>

Two other agents injured in late-night shooting; suspects at large MATAMOROS – Mexican authorities are investigating a late-night shootout that left one federal agent dead and two wounded inside their downtown home, a block from a city fire station. Agent Javier Dominguez Mercado, with Mexico’s Federal Investigations Agency (AFI), was killed in the exchange with unknown assailants. Records from the Alfredo Pumarejo General Hospital show he received five bullet wounds during the attack. According to reports, men carrying AK-47 assault rifles chased three off-duty AFI agents through downtown streets at around 10:30 p.m. Sunday. The chase ended with an exchange...

Ranchers in the region convened at the U.S. Border Patrol station for an informative meeting Friday. The ranch liaison program has been a cooperative effort between the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol and ranchers since the organization formed and is a vital part in protecting the southern border. The Del Rio sector covers approximately 59,500 square miles of land in 41 counties, much of which is privately owned ranch land. Friday’s meeting was informal and included a tour of the station on U.S. Highway 90 east of Del Rio, a brief overview of the agency’s day-to-day operations, and...

GENERAL BRAVO, Mexico – The bodies of six men – blindfolded, handcuffed and shot to death – were found Sunday packed inside a pickup truck on the side of a highway leading to the Texas border. Authorities discovered the victims in General Bravo, a town about 55 miles from Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, said Camerino Ortiz, a spokesman for police in General Bravo. Ortiz said one of those killed was in the cabin and the rest were stashed in the back of the truck. All had their eyes taped with bandages and were handcuffed with their feet...

NUEVO LAREDO - "¡Se rifa un tigre! Pero yo no compré boleto." A tiger is the raffle prize, but I didn't buy a ticket. Those were the succinct words of Moctezuma Rodríguez Meza when he was asked Friday about Mayor Daniel Peña Treviño's announcement that he was on a short list of potential police chief candidates. As he left City Hall, Rodríguez Meza said he had no plans to return to political life and business plans keep him from accepting the position. "I couldn't interview with the mayor," he said. "I came to give him my thanks and to leave...

EL PASO - Texas sheriffs, meeting to discuss border issues Thursday, got another reminder of just how dangerous the border areas of their state have become. A federal safety alert issued earlier this week warned that nine illegal immigrants in the Big Bend area of Texas have hired Mexican hit men to assassinate U.S. law-enforcement officers. News of the threat came in a confidential Homeland Security safety alert, which the Daily Bulletin obtained. The intelligence officer who authored the alert said the information came from a reliable source. The "For Official Office Use Only'' memorandum was released to law-enforcement officials...

Traffic accident kills 1, hurts 11 One man was killed and 11 people were injured when a minivan crashed headfirst into a ditch late Thursday on County Road 6 near County Road 75 near Bishop, officials said. When a Nueces County constable pulled the Chevrolet Venture over for a traffic violation, the vehicle pulled over with its lights off then took off, authorities said. The vehicle crossed County Road 6 with its lights off and nose-dived into the ditch. The dead man had a Mexican identification card but officials were not able to talk to the injured people, who were...

Speaking at a press conference Thursday, DPS Capt. Audra Livingston said Stone pulled over Ramon Ramos, 37, and Francisco Saucedo, 38, both of Tulsa, Okla., for a speeding violation. "After advising the driver of the truck the reason for the stop, Trooper Stone developed probable cause to arrest the driver. During the arrest the driver pulled a 9 mm handgun from his waistband and began firing the weapon point-blank at Trooper Stone, striking him in the left shoulder," he said. "The passenger and driver then began firing multiple rounds at Trooper Stone as he lay in the barditch."

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — An anonymous call Wednesday led investigators to the discovery of three charred bodies in a shallow hole, authorities said. The remains were so badly burned police couldn't tell whether the victims were men or women, said a state police officer, who requested anonymity because he's not authorized to talk to the media. A call at about 1 p.m. alerted police to the location on the outskirts of the city, the officer said. Inside the 3-foot-deep hole police found the three sets of remains. Shell casings found at the scene indicated the victims may have been shot....

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - For the second time in less than one year, this violent border city is looking for another police chief. Omar Pimentel, who held the post for the past eight months, resigned from the top cop post Wednesday evening. The resignation came suddenly and almost under the radar. In a short press release, Pimentel thanked Mayor Daniel Pene for appointing him to the post. "Thank you for trusting in me, and it was an honor to have served the community," the statement said. Omar Pimentel Pimentel, a former pharmacy owner and director of the police academy, accepted...

NUEVO LAREDO A spokesman for President Vicente Fox said Friday that federal authorities are working on a theory that Nuevo Laredo city police were involved in the deaths of four federal agents who were machine-gunned in broad daylight. "Preliminary information shows that they may have been shot by some members of the municipal police force who continue to work with the (Gulf) cartel or with the cartels," spokesman Ruben Aguilar said during his daily meeting with reporters in Mexico City. Aguilar said the four agents were all members of the federal preventive police (PFP, by its Spanish initials) who had...