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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police in southern California have arrested 60 people and broken up an Iraqi criminal ring accused of selling drugs, machine guns and improvised bombs out of an immigrant social club, authorities said on Thursday. The swoop by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and local police targeted a network operating out of El Cajon, which is near San Diego and close to the border with Mexico.

Federal officials confirmed two Mexican military helicopter incursions took place in skies over Starr and Hidalgo County today but are asking the public not to be alarmed. Local law enforcement officials were put on alert after a Mexican military helicopter was spotted in Alto Bonito and headed east into Hidalgo County. Sources told Action 4 News tha tthe helicopter flew from Alto Bonito and then over Sullivan City and La Joya around 1 p.m. Thursday.

(via The Drudge Report) CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico—Two Americans were driving back to El Paso, Texas, last December after an afternoon across the border in Ciudad Juárez. A few blocks from the border, they were surrounded by Mexican army trucks and pulled from their Dodge Ram. Mexico's military says it found two suitcases full of marijuana in the cab of the pickup truck. Two soldiers later testified that they drove the two Americans to a military compound on the outskirts of town, questioned them briefly, then turned them over to civilian authorities. The Americans were charged with possession of marijuana with...

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BROWNSVILLE, Texas – The defense department says it is investigating reports of a Mexican military helicopter seen flying in Texas. Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez says several people reported seeing the aircraft on Sunday flying over an RV park near Zapata, some 100 miles northwest of McAllen on the border with Mexico.

SNIPPET: "VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico -- Dozens of gunmen mounted rare and apparently coordinated attacks targeting two army garrisons in northern Mexico, touching off firefights that killed 18 attackers."

ZAPATA - Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. says a Mexican Military Helicopter was seen crossing into U.S. airspace around 3:30 Sunday afternoon. A number of witnesses including a justice of the peace reported the helicopter as it hovered over Zapata County. The witnesses say the helicopter was flying pretty low. This is the second time this month a Mexican Military helicopter has crossed into South Texas. The first was a over Falcon Heights, about 14 miles from Roma. Witnesses there say the chopper hovered over a home that used to belong to a drug dealer before flying back to...

The nation's border czar has concluded that Mexican soldiers who held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint in August did so after bypassing a barbed-wire fence and other clearly visible barriers to cross into the United States, contradicting claims by the State Department and the Mexican government that the soldiers were simply lost. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner W. Ralph Basham, in a private letter to the National Border Patrol Council Local 2544 in Tucson, Ariz., described the Aug. 3 border incident as a "potential lethal encounter involving four Mexican armed military soldiers north of the international...

The U.S. Border Patrol's largest union local has asked President Bush to put an end to the scores of Mexican military incursions into the United States that have put Border Patrol agents at risk of being injured or killed. "It is disgraceful that Border Patrol agents are put in harm's way and our government doesn't do everything reasonably within its power to protect us from marauding Mexican soldiers and others," said Edward "Bud" Tuffly II, head of Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) in Tucson. "Without a forceful response to these illegal incursions, an agent will eventually...

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) responded to reports that a Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint by members of the Mexican military in Arizona by reaffirming the necessity for border fencing and other infrastructure. According to a State Department Spokesman, the encounter “stemmed from a momentary misunderstanding as to the exact location of the U.S.-Mexican border.” "I disagree with the State Department’s characterization of this incident," said Congressman Hunter. "The fact that members of the Mexican military are routinely operating in such close proximity to the border, with no identifiable purpose, raises serious questions about their...

Mexican army soldiers invaded U.S. territory and held a member of the U.S. Border Patrol at gunpoint. "Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years," a statement from Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council said. The Tucson Sector Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint near Ajo, Ariz. Mexican military personnel crossed over the border and pointed rifles at him. Judicial Watch documented 29 confirmed incidents along the U.S.-Mexican border involving Mexican military and/or law enforcement personnel in 2007. The Border Patrol union said, "A few years ago the Mexican military...

The U.S. Border Patrol agent's union reported that Mexican soldiers crossed into U.S. territory and held an agent captive at gunpoint during a Sunday night incident. The National Boder Patrol Council Local 2544 in Tuscon reported on its website that reported that the incident occured near Ajo, Arizona. The union website reported that the soldiers returned to Mexico without further incident after reinforcements arrived to confront them. It's not clear why Mexican soldiers were on U.S. territory but union officials said in their website that Mexican soldiers have been known to protect Mexican drug gangs and migrant smugglers. "Unfortunately, this...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Tucson, Ariz. (AP) -- Four Mexican soldiers crossed into a remote area of Arizona and briefly held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint before realizing where they were and returning to Mexico, U.S. authorities said. Border Patrol spokeswoman Dove Crawford said the incident early Sunday on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation, about 85 miles southwest of Tucson, was in an area where the border likely was marked only with barbed wire.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist. Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified.

KFYI Radio in Phoenix is reporting an incident that took place this past Monday morning in a Phoenix residential neighborhood. Former Congressman turned talk radio host, JD Hayworth, reports that three suspects were captured in an attempted ambush on Phoenix Police which may have turned deadly. The three suspects were captured with two AR-15 assault weapons, full body armor and dressed in black assault gear impersonating a Phoenix Police Tactical Team.

MEXICO CITY — A government-run human rights commission accused soldiers of rape and torture today and recommended the army be pulled out of Mexico's nationwide drug war. The report by the National Human Rights Commission is the first official document to back up long-standing allegations of human rights abuses by soldiers ordered by President Felipe Calderon to retake large swaths of territory controlled by powerful drug cartels. Military officials declined to comment on the report, saying any response to the allegations would come in a press statement. Calderon ordered the nationwide crackdown shortly after taking office on Dec. 1, and...

Gun-toting members of the Mexican military are crossing regularly into U.S. territory, where they are partnering with drug cartels and criminal gangs to protect sophisticated smuggling operations, according to Texas sheriffs and lawmakers. Some of the Mexican infiltrators are suspected to have been trained by the U.S. military. U.S. Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement officials operating along the southwestern border have come under attack from the Mexican side in recent months, with automatic gunfire frequently erupting, Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) told Cybercast News Service. Mexican military units and drug cartels have access to weaponry and communications equipment far...

The U.S. Border Patrol has confirmed that a Mexican government helicopter crossed into the United States Tuesday evening. The unmarked helicopter crossed into the U.S. near San Luis, Ariz., at 6:30 p.m. and traveled along the Colorado River for approximately a half a mile before returning to Mexico, according to a Customs and Border Protection release. "After proper coordination and verifications with the government of Mexico, they confirmed that the helicopter belonged to the Mexican Attorney General's Office (PGR) and had mistakenly and unintentionally crossed into U.S. airspace," the release said. PGR is the federal police force that investigates federal...

U.S. gives Mexico millions for securityBy Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES February 13, 2006 The U.S. government has sent more than $376 million to Mexico in the past decade for that country's military and police to help stop alien and drug smugglers, guard against terrorists and protect America's southern border, including $50 million due this year. The money, quietly authorized through State and Defense department programs, has been used to train and equip the Mexican military and police, drawing disagreement on whether those institutions are part of the solution for U.S. border security, or are part of the problem. Rep....