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Mexican officials say a concrete barrier constructed by the U.S. Border Patrol in a storm-water tunnel beneath Nogales appears to be on Mexican soil and was the main cause of serious flooding July 12 in Nogales, Sonora. The flooding caused about $8 million in damage in Nogales, Sonora, the officials say. The 5-foot-high wall on the floor of the tunnel in front of a gate was put in without notifying the International Boundary and Water Commission, said Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the U.S. section of the commission. The commission requests that any agency doing work on the border that could...

The U.S. Border Patrol has brought in 200 additional agents and is offering flights home to Mexico City for illegal entrants selected for prosecution as part of a new effort. The multifaceted strategy called "Operation Arizona Denial" has the mantra of "breaking the smuggling cycle." The idea is to concentrate resources in targeted areas to reduce illegal-entrant smuggling and violence in the Tucson Sector, the busiest along the Southwest border for illegal entries and marijuana smuggling. The additional agents have come from other Border Patrol sectors and will be here temporarily, said Mike Scioli, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. Their...

A convicted murderer who was deported earlier this year after serving more than two decades in prison was arrested Tuesday after trying to come back into the country. Juan Crisantos-Ramos, 46, a Mexican citizen, was taken in to custody at the Dennis DeConcini port of entry in Nogales after he attempted to enter the United States using an immigration document that belonged to someone else, according to a news release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The incident occurred late Tuesday when an officer was screening people and began asking routine questions of a passenger in a car, the release...

NOGALES, Ariz. — The Mexican woman behind the wheel of the white Dodge Intrepid looks like any one of the thousands of legal border crossers who come through the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales. It's Friday afternoon and her 12-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son are in the back seat dressed in their school uniforms with backpacks at their feet. The 30-year-old seemed to be a mom on her way to shop in Nogales, Ariz., after picking up her kids at school. But, hidden behind the back seat, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found four packages of marijuana wrapped...

NOGALES, Sonora — Gabino Ibarra leans against a white stucco wall outside a church in the late-afternoon shadows, prying a few remaining cactus splinters from his calloused hands. It's mid-April and the 37-year-old father of four from Veracruz, Mexico, is staying at a migrant shelter, resting from three weeks of failed attempts to cross illegally into the United States through the Altar Desert near Sasabe. The grueling desert treks have left Ibarra 17 pounds lighter and less enthusiastic about his northern quest than when he left Veracruz, more than a thousand miles away in southeastern Mexico. But, he planned to...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Four Mexican men were arrested and charged with homicide Thursday in the beating death of a man who allegedly tried to rob them at gunpoint as they attempted to cross into the United States. The unidentified man who was killed appeared to specialize in robbing migrants, the government news agency Notimex quoted police as saying. Armed thieves often hide in the desert near the U.S. border and prey on would-be undocumented crossers, who sometimes carry money for the journey. The four men from Nogales and Chiapas states were attempting to cross a desert pass west of...

Tucson Region Hastert: 'Zero' entry by migrants Group of mostly GOP lawmakers tours border By Josh Brodesky ARIZONA DAILY STAR Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.22.2006 advertisement NOGALES, Ariz. — Saying there needed to be "zero penetration" into the United States by illegal entrants, House Speaker Dennis Hastert got a look Friday at the challenges faced by those trying to secure the southern border. The Illinois Republican and a handful of other lawmakers, including Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe, from Southern Arizona, are visiting the border with Mexico. On Friday, the group took a daylong tour in Arizona, including an afternoon...

Several Border Patrol agents were fired upon Wednesday evening in Nogales while responding to a call about a vehicle that was entering the country without going through a port of entry, an official said Thursday. Around 7 p.m. Border Patrol agents responded to a report of a silver Mercedes sport utility vehicle driving through the desert in Nogales, said Jesus Rodriguez, a spokesman for the agency's Tucson Sector. As the agents neared the SUV, they were fired upon, he said. One patrol vehicle took rounds to the windshield and the body. The agent in that vehicle fired back as did...

NOGALES, Mexico — One by one, men and women crawled on their knees and bellies across the hot desert sand about 100 yards from where rumbling tractor-trailer rigs crossed from Mexico into Arizona. In temperatures near 100 degrees, they looked like they were on a military reconnaissance mission, but their tattered clothing said these weren't soldiers. They were trying to make their way from southern Mexico to the United States. President Bush and Congress have vowed to seal America's porous border with thousands of National Guard troops, miles of fences, surveillance cameras and aerial drones. But in the Mariposa Canyon,...

A rollover accident caused major traffic problems Wednesday morning on I-19 at Pima Mine Road. The Arizona Department of Public Safety says that 16 people were inside a truck when it rolled. Several of them suffered serious injuries. Twelve people were taken to the hospital by ambulance, plus 2 more by helicopter, and two fled from the scene. DPS Sgt. Paul Castellano says, "The people travelling in the vehicle appeared to be illegal immigrants." This is the second major accident involving illegal immigrant in the last two weeks.

Nobody paid much attention when a large white van with Arizona numberplates pulled into a parking space in the shade of the 15ft-high sheet-metal wall that separates Mexico from the United States in the divided border town of Nogales. A few yards away US border guards monitored the steady flow of pedestrians through a heavily fortified gate in the wall. There was no reason to be suspicious of a van legally parked on a metered space directly beneath a pylon of American surveillance cameras. Yet inside the van Mexican gangsters were preparing one of the most brazen smuggling ploys ever...

Well, this is not what I expected, but at National Guard Drill this weekend, I expected to receive orders to deploy to New Orleans, LA in support of Operation Katrina relief (yes, Arkansas National Guard is still there), or to Iraq/Afghanistan since I didn't go with the 142nd FA this month. But instead, I received orders to active duty for many months to Fort Huachuca, Arizona.I was needing advice on the SE area of Arizona, specifically, Sierra Vista, Tuscon, Bigsby, etc.I spent all day with ATF getting my Class III firearms ready to go to be stored at the company...

By LEO W. BANKS Leo W. Banks The Morales family, from left: Alex, Susie and Heriberto. Leo W. Banks Before he approaches a pasture, Sonny Clarke scans the area with binoculars for signs of danger. Leo W. Banks A cup hangs from the Morales water tank, an invitation for passers-by to drink. Leo W. Banks Morales wrote her letter to Alejandro Mata's mom from her kitchen table. Leo W. Banks "When you have to wear a bulletproof vest because of gang snipers on public land in your own country, it's pretty bad," says Jake Brown. Susie Clarke Morales lives in...

A 20-year-old California man trying to enter the United States from Mexico with his family was arrested on a murder warrant. Uriel Diaz of Pomona, Calif., was unable to provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers with identification as he tried to enter through the Nogales Port of Entry on Saturday.

FBI agents posing as cocaine traffickers in Arizona caught 16 current and former U.S. soldiers and law enforcement personnel who took payoffs to help move the drugs through checkpoints, Justice Department officials said Thursday. Those charged include a former Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector, a former Army sergeant, a former federal prison guard, current and former members of the Arizona Air National Guard and the state corrections department, and a Nogales, Ariz., police officer, officials said. All 16 have agreed to plead guilty to being part of a bribery and extortion conspiracy, the result of the nearly 4 1/2-year FBI...

Unarmed man was in group transporting pot Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies are continuing to investigate an incident in which a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed an unarmed drug backpacker north of the border. The incident happened about 4 a.m. Saturday in Pesqueira Canyon, about 10 miles north of the border, near Old Ruby and West Frontage roads, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said Monday. A dozen illegal entrants with about 300 pounds of marijuana in six packs were being tracked by Border Patrol agents. When the agents tried to apprehend the men, they scattered and, for...

Search of Nogales home yields anti-tank explosive, grenades NOGALES, Sonora - U.S. and Mexican officials are investigating a heavy weapons cache discovered in this border town that police believe was headed south to arm drug cartels. In a late Wednesday search of a Nogales home, police found an anti-tank warhead, six hand grenades and more than 1,200 rounds of ammunition, Nogales Police Chief Ramses Arce Fierro said Friday. Officers also found an empty missile tube for a larger sized shoulder-fired weapon, he said. A task force of FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents were working with...

The arrest this month of two Tucson men on charges of smuggling marijuana inside coffins isn't the first time traffickers have used strange methods to try to get their drug loads into and through the United States - nor will it be the last. Officials have had little to say about their investigation into the recent coffin case. Robert Dean Harper and Timothy Gavin Hynd face charges in connection with the smuggling of 610 pounds of marijuana through Oklahoma, where they were stopped by the state Highway Patrol on Dec. 10. Both men, who told investigators they were working for...

Press Release - Customs and Border ProtectionNogales Agents Come Under Fire1135 Pounds of Marijuana SeizedTucson, AZ -- On November 11, 2004, agents assigned to the Nogales Border Patrol Station disrupted drug smugglers as they attempt to drive two drug filled trucks across the international border.At approximately 12:00 p.m., a Border Patrol Agent observed two trucks drive north through the desert across the border near the Buena Vista Ranch, east of Nogales. As the two trucks traveled north away from the border, a third truck joined them. The third truck was being utilized as a scout (lookout) by the drug smugglers.Agents...

Mexican and U.S. officials are investigating the discovery of two smuggling tunnels found late Wednesday in Nogales, Sonora. Local police were searching an area on the western end of the city after a series of reports of suspicious activity when they tried to chase people into storm drains. When they didn't find anybody in the drain, police assumed they had used a tunnel. Further investigation in the area yielded two tunnel openings and the Mexican police contacted authorities in the United States, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said Friday. Authorities couldn't determine where or if the tunnels exited on...

<p>CLACKAMAS — Rape charges have been filed against a 25-year-old man who returned to the United States after being deported in September.</p> <p>Jesus Del Carmen Gomez Rodriguez was arrested in Portland late Wednesday. He is suspected in a home-invasion rape Nov. 8 at an apartment complex in Clackamas .</p>