Free Republic

McALLEN—Church officials and the community of Matamoros were in shock after a well-known Catholic priest was killed in crossfire during a Saturday afternoon shootout between armed gunmen and the Mexican military. Sources outside of law enforcement said the shootout began when members of the Zetas tried to enter Matamoros. Father Marco Antonio Duran Romero died at approximately 3:40 p.m. at a local hospital from a gunshot injury, according to a statement by Father Alan G. Camargo, a spokesman for the Matamoros Dioceses. The Matamoros Dioceses issued a statement late Saturday expressing their deep pain at the loss of father Duran....

LAREDO, July 2 - U.S. residents are being advised not to visit Nuevo Laredo this Fourth of July Weekend. The advisory comes from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Webb County Sheriff’s Office. Both agencies say they have received credible intelligence from multiple sources indicating that the Zetas Cartel is planning to target U.S. citizens who travel to Nuevo Laredo this weekend. “According to the information we have received, the Zetas are planning a possible surge in criminal activity, such as robberies, extortions, car-jackings and vehicle theft, specifically against U.S. citizens,” said DPS Director Steven C. McCraw. “We...

Each passing week seems to bring with it events that seem even more unbelievable than the week before. Whether it was Louis Farrakhan calling the president a murderer or NBC purposefully leaving out “under God” from the pledge of allegiance during its telecast of the U.S. Open golf tournament. You wouldn’t believe it unless you saw it with your own two eyes. Even here in the great state of Texas we are seeing liberals become even more emboldened. A Judge in Corpus Christi convicted a woman of injury to a child for spanking her own child with an open hand...

JUAREZ, MX - The Juarez police chief survived an assassination attempt. Gunmen drove up Julian Leyzaoloa's motorcade and opened fire. The chief's bodguards returned fire and shot one of the attackers. Leyzaola was not hurt. Police arrested two men. One of the men confessed that he is the son of a former Juarez police officer that was murdered in 2002.

No major media outlets are reporting it, but several hundreds soldiers and marines are en route to Nuevo Laredo, Tamps. (MX) to try and get a grip on a violent few months in our Sister City. Several websites report that Nuevo Laredo, Tamps. (MX) is essentially under martial law as the military moves in and relieves city police officers. Soldiers were seen at police headquarters seizing guns. It comes as the federal and state government move into a new phase of security efforts in an attempt to turn up the heat on local drug cartels. More troops are expected to...

MISSION — Drug smugglers opened fire on U.S. law enforcement officers Sunday morning near the Anzalduas International Bridge after Mission police intercepted a 500-pound load of marijuana, police Chief Leo Longoria said. U.S. law enforcement officers shot back, Longoria said, and no injuries were reported. Details remained hazy Sunday afternoon, and Longoria couldn’t give further information about the brief shootout. Less than two weeks ago, U.S. law enforcement officers came under fire near Abram and shot back, injuring three smugglers. On June 9, after Texas Rangers, Border Patrol agents and state game wardens were fired upon, they returned more than...

Authorities have confirmed that a Monday afternoon shootout took place in an industrial area located in the eastside of Matamoros. The shootout between soldiers and armed happened in an area along the highway to Playa Bagdad around 3:30 p.m. Monday. A precise location was not immediately available but officials confirmed it took place in an area near the Colonia CIMA 3 and Ciudad Industrial. Residents reported on Twitter that helicopters were heard and seen firing "incessantly" in the Colonia CIMA 3. Another Matamoros resident reported that the shootout was so bad that nearby maquiladora workers had to stop and take...

Federal, state agents unleashed barrage at Mexican smugglers. WESLACO — Answering a smattering of gunshots with a 300-round barrage should show drug runners, their inflatable rafts full of contraband, that Texas law enforcement officers aren't messing around, authorities said Friday. “You shoot a police officer, you're going to be shot back at,” Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said, dismissing any notion that the U.S. response to an early morning shooting Thursday by Mexican drug runners on the Rio Grande was over the top. An initial DPS news release said the U.S. officials came under “heavy gunfire.” At a...

Texas authorities said suspected drug runners in Mexico began shooting at U.S. law enforcement agents from across the Rio Grande on Thursday, forcing the U.S. officers to return fire and injuring at least three of the suspects on the other side of the border. Few details about the early morning shootout in Hidalgo County were immediately available. The shootout began after U.S. agents patrolling in boats tried to seize a drug load on the Rio Grande, Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said. Mange said she could not disclose whether any U.S. officers were struck or injured. She...

The Mexican Army announced Sunday night the results of a raid at a warehouse that was being used as a makeshift machine shop by cartel members to build armored assault vehicles. The raid took place Saturday in the Prolongación Gonzalez area in the city of Camargo, across from Rio Grande City, during a routine patrol where a military convoy came across the warehouse, according to a news release from the Mexican Army. As a result of the raid, the Mexican military seized two dump trucks that had been heavily armored and modified to carry a squad of gunmen. The two...

Mexico City – Three suspected organized crime gummen were killed and another three were wounded in a clash near the northeastern Mexican city of Matamoros with army troops, who seized more than 100 weapons and nearly a score of vehicles after the gun battle, military sources said. The Defense Secretariat's 4th Military Region said in a statement that 83 automatic rifles, 18 handguns, five grenade launchers, a rocket launcher, 11 fragmentation grenades, 28 40 mm grenades, 315 ammunition clips, more than 18,000 rounds of ammunition, 17 vehicles and eight kilos of marijuana were confiscated in Wednesday's operation. The operation began...

Signs informing travelers on I-35 of the distance they are from Laredo can be seen along the freeway, but motorists traveling south have begun to notice a change over the past few weeks. Signs that proudly displayed the distance's carried both Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, but recently our sister city to the south has been blacked out. Ryan Bailey has more on this controversial decision. It may look like this sign was vandalized with spray paint, but TX-DOT says they are the ones blacking out Nuevo Laredo in an effort to distance the two neighboring cities, and it started as...

LOS INDIOS - The small community of Los Indios is on edge. They say the violence in Mexico is breaking out too close to home. The Los Indios International Bridge is back open to traffic. It was shut down Wednesday afternoon after a reported shootout just across the border. Folks in this area are still shaken up. Travelers like Alejandro Juarez are surprised by a gunbattle here. He and his family were trying to get into Mexico through what he considers one the border's calmest crossings. “I think this is the safest way to go to Mexico because Valle Hermoso...

Morning of April 21, 2011 - My Brother and I are soldiers in the Army National Guard. My brother, James Bellow, is currently deployed on the Texas/Mexico border. In the early morning hours of April 21st, 2011, my brother witnessed and recorded a MASSIVE firefight and Battle in Mexico, right across from the city of Roma, TX. This battle lasted for hours and included machine gun fire and several explosions from grenades of mortars. My brother filmed some of the footage of the battle on his phone, which can be seen below: Gunfire heard during the battle in Mexico right...

BROWNSVILLE — A new law enforcement bulletin warns that members of drug cartels have been overheard plotting to kill federal agents and Texas Rangers who guard the border, officials in Washington reported Thursday. The bulletin, which was issued in March, said cartel members planned to use AK-47 assault rifles to shoot agents and Rangers from across the border. It did not name the cartels. The information was released at a hearing before a panel of the House Committee on Homeland Security. The Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Management addressed “The U.S. Homeland Security Role in the Mexican War Against the...

At least eleven bodies are found in Nuevo Laredo yesterday. However, since Mexican media doesn't report murders when instructed by drug traffickers, yesterday's death toll is unofficial. The eleven deaths are confirmed through the Mexican military that found the bodies thrown in several different areas of Nuevo Laredo. The torture and shooting victims were found along the highway to Monterrey. The bodies all had small posters on their body, with writing presumably from rival cartels. Three other drug cartel members were killed when Mexican soldiers stopped an 18-wheeler and gunmen fired shots from inside the trailer. An explosion, believed to...

Four people were killed during a shootout between Mexican Military and alleged members of organized crime Sunday morning in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. The shooting happened shortly after 2 a.m. after soldiers tried to stop two vehicles carrying several men for a routine inspection, according to a news release from SEDENA, Mexico’s ministry of defense. The victims, whose identities were not disclosed, apparently shot at soldiers, who “were then forced to retaliate.” After the shooting, Mexican authorities seized two vehicles, six long guns, 74 magazines and 1,110 cartridges of various calibers, officials said.

AUSTIN, March 24 - The Obama administration and congressional leaders are “willing to spend billions of dollars enforcing a no-fly zone in Libya, but fail to show up for our fight to secure our borders at home.” That is the view of state Sen. Tommy Williams, chair of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee. Williams, a Republican from The Woodlands, held a news conference at the state Capitol on Thursday to announce the introduction of a Senate Resolution critical of the federal government’s record on securing the border. “I'm tired of the rhetoric, inaction and escalating costs Texas is...

FRONTON ─ U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Rio Grande City Station seized a cache of weapons, ammunition and grenades near the Rio Grande on Wednesday. The weapons were confiscated when agents working in the area saw a pickup stop near the river and then drive away after a short amount of time. The agents walked over to the location and found footprints leading into the brush. As they followed the trail, they found a large duffle bag hidden within the brush. Inside the bag, agents found eight AK-47 assault rifles, two AR-15 assault rifles, two grenades, nearly 350...

NUEVO LAREDO— The city's newest police chief was killed late Wednesday night when unknown assailants blocked off a downtown street shortly after he had left police headquarters and machine-gunned his vehicle. Manuel Farfan Carriola, a retired Mexican Army general, had been outspoken about fighting crime in his city, especially drug traffickers who are fighting for control of lucrative illegal trading routes. He was named to the position when the new mayor, Benjamin Galvan Gomez, took office on Jan. 1. Farfan Carriola was usually accompanied by several bodyguards and a personal assistant. Early reports indicated that some of those men may...