Free Republic

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Federal authorities arrested a leading lieutenant with Mexico’s Gulf Cartel in Texas after he illegally snuck across the Rio Grande to enter the United States. Law enforcement agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had their sights on the cartel cell leader for some time in connection with multiple drug shipments allegedly linked to him. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Rene “El Diablo” Garcia Cantu near La Paloma, Texas, after he illegally entered the country in a remote rural area. During a background check, agents determined that Garcia Cantu is the target of an ongoing DEA...

The FBI is asking for help finding leads on a Rio Grande Valley Marine kidnapped at gunpoint in Mexico, the agency said Monday. Armando Torres III, 25, crossed over the Progreso International Bridge on May 14 to visit his father on a ranch near Los Indios, according to an agency news release. There, investigators believe armed intruders took Torres, his father Armando Torres II and uncle Salvador Torres shortly after they arrived. The younger Torres’ sister Cristina Torres, 24, who lives in Virginia, said she got a call from her cousin minutes after the gunmen raced away. “She saw a...

LOS INDIOS, Texas – Photographer Andre Malok and I were three days into traveling the banks of the Rio Grande before we saw any sort of wall along the Mexican border. We finally saw one in McAllen. So did half the TV crews in Texas. It was Thursday, the day President Trump came to this border town to give a speech on his current tiff with Congress over $5 billion in funding for a border “wall” – or “fence” – or whatever. The day before, Andre and I had driven along 150 miles of border without seeing any barriers at...

LOS INDIOS - Border security is in question after an incident at a Valley international bridge. A convoy of Mexican soldiers crossed the border to shop. Agents say they didn't even have to go through a checkpoint. The incident happened Saturday night at the Los Indios Free Trade Bridge. It raised a red flag for border security near San Benito. The Mexican soldiers came to Brady’s Duty Free Store in the middle of the bridge. It's on the U.S. side, but soldiers never passed through a port of entry checkpoint. About 25 soldiers armed with weapons shopped for about 15...

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...

Police briefs — Deputies arrested a Los Indios man in the knifepoint robbery of a transmigrante who was parked and sleeping along U.S. Highway 281 early Thursday morning. Cameron County sheriff’s deputies arrested Rene Castañeda Barrera, 29, on an aggravated robbery charge early Thursday morning, according to jail records. Sheriff Omar Lucio said Barrera used a knife to rob a man who was spending the night in the parking lot of the Vida Nueva Transmigrante at 1018 W. U.S. Highway 281 in Los Indios. The transmigrante told deputies that Barrera and possibly another man pulled up next to him in...