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Mexican federal agents shut down a Nuevo Laredo radio station Wednesday. Authorities said it was taken off the air for operating without a permit but one media report characterized the raid as linked to organized crime. Newspaper La Jornada identified the station as La Tremenda de los Dos Laredos, which you could find on your FM dial at 106.5 in the Laredo area up until about 2 p.m. yesterday. The Mexico City newspaper reported authorities detained employees for "various hours" while they gave statements to the police. La Jornada called the raid "violent" and reported that banging on doors and...

NUEVO LAREDO - A highly respected former city councilman was gunned down near his downtown office Thursday night, renewing concerns that violence may be returning to the Sister City. Rolando Montante, an engineer and owner of a construction company that often does business with local government, was a well-known political activist with the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or PRI. He had been mentioned as a possible candidate to head the city's waterworks system. Montante was shot twice with a .40-caliber weapon sometime Thursday night, according to results of the autopsy. The gun believed to have been used in the killing was...

NUEVO LAREDO - A gunfight between military forces and alleged drug traffickers that lasted more than an hour in the predawn hours Wednesday left one soldier dead and at least three others injured, authorities confirmed Thursday. An unknown number of traffickers also were killed and injured, authorities said. The assault occurred in Ciudad Mier, about 60 miles east of Nuevo Laredo, at about 1 a.m. Wednesday, said Gen. Rigoberto García Cortés, head of the border military forces headquartered in Nuevo Laredo, at a news conference Thursday. The national Defense Department reported that after the gunfight, soldiers searched two sport utility...

Security was heavy Thursday as the nine defendants named so far in an indictment targeting the Gulf Cartel's enforcers, the Zetas, appeared in federal court for pre-trial proceedings.At least half a dozen stone-faced U.S. Marshals kept watch over the defendants in U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez's court, along with members of the Correction Corp. of America's special operations response team, who wore body armor. Prosecutors allege that the nine defendants named in the 47-count indictment are members or associates of the Zetas, a violent wing of the Gulf Cartel believed to control most of the narcotics trafficking in Nuevo Laredo....

A 17-year-old from Laredo went missing in the Sister City on March 16, law enforcement authorities said Thursday.Ian Carlos Romo was apparently cruising with three or four friends around Paseo Colón when they were taken from the vehicle. Authorities could not confirm who the other individuals in the car were, but said they were not U.S. citizens. The family has not heard from Romo since the incident and is concerned for his safety. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 727-8477 or the local FBI field office at 723-4021. Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards of up to...

MEXICO CITY — Hit men tied to the Gulf cartel appear to be boldly seeking recruits by posting help-wanted signs in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, including a giant banner hung across a thoroughfare, a federal anti-drug enforcement official said today. The banner appeared over the weekend in Nuevo Laredo near the border with Texas: "Operative group 'The Zetas' wants you, soldier or ex-soldier. We offer a good salary, food and benefits for your family. Don't suffer anymore mistreatment and don't go hungry." Photos of the banner were displayed prominently in Mexico's national media today. The Zetas is the...

The FBI is investigating the kidnapping of a 17-year-old former Alexander High School student that may have turned fatal, officials confirmed Thursday. German Antonio Villarreal Muñoz was forced into a sport utility vehicle at Juega Juega, a popular casino in Nuevo Laredo, the night of March 8. His father reported the kidnapping to Mexican authorities the following morning, but nothing was said in public until March 12, when the teen's mother issued a statement to Laredo media, pleading for information about her son. Nearly a month later, hopes for a happy ending are dimming. "Foul play is suspected," said Norm...

MEXICO CITY — Mexican federal police in the border city of Nuevo Laredo seized $6 million in cash Thursday after arresting five alleged paramilitary members at a Pan-American Highway checkpoint. The seizure, officials said, marked the latest blow against the Gulf Cartel, the drug smuggling organization based in the Mexican cities bordering South Texas. Authorities said the arrested men are members of the Zetas, a paramilitary group of gunmen led by deserters from elite Mexican army units. The five men were arrested at a checkpoint about 15 miles south of Nuevo Laredo. After their arrest, they led police to a...

Federal authorities have their sights set on high-ranking members of the Zetas working in Nuevo Laredo, as indicated by a 50-page indictment partially unsealed earlier this week.The indictment alleges a wide-ranging, drug-smuggling conspiracy that involved several murders, including one in which a defendant is accused of collecting the blood of his victim and making a toast to Santa Muerte before killing the man and burning his body. Two of the 32 people listed in the 47-count indictment were in federal court Thursday. Only four names have been made public; the others are blacked out on the court records because they...

Members of rival El Salvadorian gangs were arrested by Border Patrol agents over the weekend just north of Laredo on Interstate 35, an indicator of the increasing through traffic by violent gang members the Laredo Police Department has noticed in recent months."Mostly they're transient," said Sgt. Armando Elizondo, supervisor of LPD's Juvenile Enforcement Team, which deals with local gang activity. "They use this area as a crossing point." Sunday, a 22-year-old gang member was arrested by agents at the Texas Travel Information Center at the 18-mile marker on the interstate at about 2 p.m. He had tattoos showing he's a...

They are believed to have smuggled hundreds of illegal immigrants into the United States but now, 41 truck drivers, guides, brokers, recruiters and smuggling leaders are facing criminal charges. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents started the investigation in Laredo but made the arrests across several American cities over the last seven weeks. Investigators said the group used truck drivers to smuggle at least 376 illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras into the United States. Most of the immigrants were discovered tractor trailers and attempting to pass through different checkpoints in and around Laredo. Most...

BROWNSVILLE - A 23-year-old man was arrested Wednesday on charges of being part of an auto-theft ring that was allegedly stealing tractors. Tirso Alamillo was charged with six counts of theft of a motor vehicle and one count of engaging in organized criminal activity, police Sgt. Jimmy Manrrique said. The auto-theft ring was stealing large machinery from construction sites, according to a police report. "The ring is accused of stealing six back-hoe tractors ... and a motor grader tractor," Manrrique said. "These vehicle are worth (a lot) of money on the black market and are believed to have been routed...

A 17-year-old Alexander High School student is missing after visiting with friends in Nuevo Laredo, and his family is asking for help in finding him. The family of German Antonio Villarreal said he went to a movie at the Multi Cinema in Nuevo Laredo on Saturday, March 8. Afterward, he was with friends at Juega Juega, a popular casino in the Sister City, when he went missing. "German is a loving son and brother to his five siblings," said Maria Elena Muñoz Treviño, the student's mother. "His father and I are worried about our son and want to see him...

NUEVO LAREDO - Kidnappers demanding a $10 million ransom for the release of a Dallas man were captured by city police Sunday.The victim, Sergio Diaz de Leon Rivera, was rescued after family members called police to tell of the ransom demand. The five suspects snatched Diaz de Leon Rivera in the downtown historical district Saturday. The suspects appeared at a hearing Monday before a state court on federal charges of illegal deprivation of liberty and criminal association, among others. According to court documents, Emeregildo Diaz De Leon of Dallas told Nuevo Laredo police that Sergio had been taken by men...

Juan Manuel Marquez-Rodriguez was supposed to use a baggie of marijuana to lure Julio Adrian Serrano out of his home on Gallagher Avenue that cool December morning in 2006, as two other men lay in wait to kidnap him at gunpoint.But when Serrano went out to meet Marquez, he spotted Sergio "Pelon" Oslan Rivera jumping over a nearby fence. Serrano immediately turned around and ran back into his trailer. Marquez, 27, pulled out a .40 caliber pistol and fired at Serrano, then 19. One bullet hit Serrano in the back, killing him on the spot, according to information Laredo police...

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan? It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding...

REYNOSA - Mexican military have surrounded the Reynosa Municipal Police Station, searching officers, vehicles and weapons. Witnesses say the military surrounded the police station building around 7 a.m. today. More than 300 police officers across the city are being brought in to be searched, along with personal cars and police-issued weapons. Officers at the city's precincts across the city are also being searched. The military is undertaking similar operations today in Nuevo Laredo, Rio Bravo and Matamoros, according to press reports from Monterrey and Mexico City. Military vehicles and personnel are blocking access to the station. The raids come after...

Carjackers stole a vehicle from a woman at gunpoint and led authorities on a short, high-speed chase Monday that ended with the suspects breaking through a barrier at International Bridge I and fleeing into Mexico, police said."Once they are in Mexico – we can't go in there to get them," said Laredo Police spokesman Jose E. Baeza, noting that in the heat of the moment police had no time to call bridge officials for assistance. Nevertheless, police are determined to find the suspects with the help of Mexican authorities. The chase began shortly after 6:30 a.m. after a woman told...

MEXICO CITY — Four police officers and seven civilians accused of working for Mexico's powerful Gulf drug cartel were flown to the capital Sunday for prosecution. The four municipal officers, detained in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, on Saturday, had allegedly funneled police and military information to the cartel by radio, Public Safety Department spokesman Edgar Millan said. Authorities previously said they were arrested for carrying unregistered guns. "The power of criminal organizations has permeated the police," Millan said, adding that internal investigations are underway to weed out corrupt officers. Police corruption is widespread in Mexico, particularly...

MEXICO CITY — Federal agents arrested four police officers just south of the border with Texas on Saturday and were investigating where they got their guns, Mexican police said. In a joint operation, federal police and soldiers arrested the officers early Saturday morning in the city of Nuevo Laredo across the border from Laredo, Texas, said a spokesman for Mexico's Public Safety Department who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter. "The army has stepped in to investigate the origin of their weapons," he said. Mexican radio station Formato 21 said the officers had guns...

Laredo, Nuevo Laredo and Webb County officials were tight-lipped after a breakfast meeting Tuesday that lasted more than two hours, speaking only in general terms about the topics of discussion.Even so, newly sworn-in Nuevo Laredo Mayor Ramon Garza Barrios, Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas, Webb County Judge Danny Valdez and others said it was a beneficial and positive meeting when they emerged from a meal at the Ambassador Steak House at Embassy Suites. "We're working together, and that's a good thing," Salinas said. "When you have the spirit of cooperation, that's when you get things done." Without mentioning any details, the...

A man involved in a kidnapping and attempted murder that ended with an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador shot in the head and left for dead on the Mexican bank of the Rio Grande pleaded guilty Thursday to kidnapping charges. Rogelio Isai "Koki" Garcia, 25, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to kidnap and one count of using a firearm during a violent crime. The first count is punishable by up to life in prison. The second, which has no maximum sentence and will run concurrently with any other convictions, will ensure Garcia receives a minimum...

The students in Marco Franco's English classes exist in two worlds. On weekdays, they are ensconced within the red-brick walls of Laredo's United High School, spending hours in Franco's cozy classroom, with white boards, motivational posters and an American flag on the wall. On weekends, they go home to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico — the place their parents want them to escape — where bloody drug cartel violence is pervasive. The majority of Franco's students are living with siblings, cousins or in-laws in Laredo. They are all recent arrivals to the United States; some have been here 12 months, some two...

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – For Ramón Garza, the incoming mayor here, the reminder is never too far away. The last time a public official – a police chief – promised to restore law and order in a city many consider lawless, he was shot at least 40 times, seven hours after taking office. Mr. Garza, a 45-year-old father of two, knows all too well the challenges ahead for his city and himself as he prepares to take office Tuesday. "Look, I don't need to be reminded, but I'm here to tell you that the situation has improved," he said in...

If you're planning to spend Christmas in Nuevo Laredo, leave early. A crush of paisanos has southbound bridge traffic nearly at a standstill, and on Saturday morning cars were backed up all the way to the north side of the city as they waited to cross. "We all knew this was going to happen," said Mucia Dovalina, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. "We knew we were going to get an onslaught." Officials opened extra lanes at the bridge and extended vehicle processing hours in anticipation of the rush on the U.S. side of the border, and vehicles...

NUEVO LAREDO - Bishop Ricardo Watty Urquidi is urging drug lords and other criminals to stop kidnapping and killing, at least during the holy Christmas season, a tradeitional time of peace and family."It's grotesque the way violence is unleashed with kidnappings at the national and local levels. It must stop," the bishop said. "Depriving someone of life is a reprehensible act. These people live with material goods that make them lose their conscience." Their actions are inhumane, the Catholic leader said, and they should seek forgiveness from He who would save their souls. It would be best to stop all...

Jordan Andrew Davidson pleaded guilty Tuesday to the attempted killing of Jesus Humberto Aguilar, a Border Patrol agent.The 21-year-old, living in Bryan at the time of his arrest, pleaded to one count of attempted murder of an officer or employee of the U.S. and one count of using a firearm during a violent crime. He was arrested earlier this year in Nuevo Laredo after he shot Aguilar in the hand and fled across the Rio Grande. The attempted murder charge holds a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and the use of a firearm charge could add up...

NUEVO LAREDO - A man was killed last week during a confrontation between armed suspects and soldiers, authorities reported Friday.The victim, whose name was not released, was believed to be between 20 and 25 years old. He was found dead inside a Ram Charger, and had been shot several times. The case is being investigated by state prosecutors and the federal attorney general's office. Gen. Rigoberto García, commander of the troops stationed in Nuevo Laredo, confirmed Saturday his solders and members of a special unit that handles firearms and explosives were involved in the confrontation. The officers spotted a group...

An El Cenizo man kidnapped at gunpoint Wednesday evening is safe.Authorities have two of the men they believe were responsible for the crime in custody, said Tessie Medina, a spokeswoman for the Webb County Sheriff's Department. A family member of the victim called 9-1-1 at about 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday to report the kidnapping, just after it happened. The caller told authorities that the kidnappers had threatened violence if the family contacted police, Medina said. "They feared for the victim's life," Medina said. Sheriff's deputies, along with Border Patrol agents and Texas Rangers, discreetly set up surveillance around the neighborhood....

EL PASO, Texas -- According to the U.S. State Department, crime in Mexico continues at high levels, and it is often violent, especially in Mexico City, Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, and Monterrey. Some Borderland residents said they do not cross the border for safety reasons. “I don't like to go. I rather stay here in the states where I know I'm safer,” said Crystal Villalba of the Lower Valley. “I don’t go because my parents don’t let me. They say, ‘You're going to die or they're going to kidnap you,’” said Miguel Zavala of Horizon. U.S. citizen who are...

Another Laredo family has turned to the media in hopes of obtaining any new information with respect to the whereabouts of a missing relative.Virginia "Vicky" Canales, 44, went missing in July while traveling to Nuevo Laredo to pick up a friend, said Canales' daughter, Cindy Canales. "It's kind of like she went out to get something and never came back," Cindy Canales said about her mother's disappearance. "We hit just about every angle we could," Laredo Police Detective Mario Soria said. "And no leads. She was en route to some business and that's the last time she was heard of."...

Court records describe how Zetas gave money, instructions to hit men LAREDO – Rosalio Reta killed his first man at age 13. He didn't like it much, he told police. The guy was tied up and kneeling. Mr. Reta just had to pick up a pistol and shoot him in the head. Rosalio Reta "He told us that wasn't his style. There was no challenge," said Webb County Assistant District Attorney Jesus Guillen, who successfully prosecuted Mr. Reta for murder. "He preferred to run surveillance on a victim, pick the right moment and surprise him. Like he was playing Grand...

Residents of Rio Bravo and El Cenizo are concerned about the escalating grass fires in Nuevo Laredo, which fire officials there say have been intentionally set.Warnings have been issued to residents with respiratory problems, urging them to stay indoors because of the heavy smoke drifting across the Rio Grande. Fears that flying sparks might start fires in the two Webb County cities, which have many structures made of wood, may have been realized late Thursday when a small home went up in flames. No major injuries were reported. "We have alerted the people about this emergency to help avoid health...

Even with a new Democratic majority in Congress, repealing the law mandating construction of a 700-mile border fence along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a near-impossible task, according to U.S. Rep Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo."To repeal this will be very hard," Cuellar said at a meeting Friday with Mayor Raul Salinas and Border Patrol Chief of the Laredo Sector Carlos X. Carrillo. The meeting was held to discuss the latest developments in what has been the contentious issue of border security. "There were about 64 House (of Representatives) members that voted in favor of the fence. With the new majority there...

NUEVO LAREDO - Health officials here Monday said there are now 71 pending or confirmed cases of Dengue Fever, including 17 of the type which causes hemorrhaging.Luis Eduardo Campbell Loa, director of state Sanitation District V, said about 75 percent of the city is being sprayed in an effort to control the mosquito population. Cases are located mainly in areas south and east of the city, and centered in the Nueva Era and Villas neighborhoods. In a news conference Monday, Campbell Loa said about 20 of the 71 cases are pending confirmation as to whether they are in fact Dengue....

NUEVO LAREDO - Public health officials joined the municipal government to urge residents to clear out properties of junk to help prevent the spread of dengue.Dr. Luis Eduardo Campbell and Mayor Daniel Peña Treviño called on home and property owners to cooperate in clearing and maintaining given sites and discarding holding water. There are 32 confirmed cases of dengue in the lab, according to Campbell. Those infected are aged 9 to 19-years-old. Public health officials said fumigating equipment will be taken to designated areas while the mayor called on residents to support the anti-dengue campaign. Campbell said Tamaulipas state government...

The families of two Laredo women who disappeared on the streets of Nuevo Laredo three years ago as they were headed home now believe they were pulled over by a Mexican police officer just five blocks from a Lincoln-Juarez International Bridge. Brenda Cisneros was celebrating her 23rd birthday when she and Yvette Martinez became two of Laredos missing on Sept. 17, 2004. The two had attended a Pepe Aguilar concert in Nuevo Laredo, and called a friend at about 4 a.m. to say they were on their way back to Laredo. That was the last that any friend or family...

NUEVO LAREDO - A group of armed men overpowered two state prison guards and broke out three federal inmates as the prisoners were being transported Wednesday night from a hospital to the state prison (CERESO I).According to a handout from the local Mexican Army command office, the three prisoners had been taken to the hospital to treat injuries sustained in a fight with other inmates at the Centro de Rehabilitacion Social detention facility. The inmates were identified as Oscar Acosta Domiguez, 33, Jesus Salgado Gallardo, 35, and Margarito Daona Martinez, 21. Military garrison officials reported that Acosta Dominguez, Salgado Gallardo...

LAREDO — When police investigators realized the hit men they had under surveillance were about to attack a local dentist driving a Hummer, they issued a hurried order to a patrol car. Pull the Hummer over, right now. A few frantic moments later, the dentist was parked, the police cruiser behind him, lights flashing. The hit men kept driving, thrown off by an apparent routine traffic stop. They had almost killed the wrong man — again. But police were only days away from stopping them for good. At its ferocious peak in 2005 and 2006, a war between Mexico's two...

NUEVO LAREDO - The popularity of "la Santa Muerte" has grown steadily in the Sister City, with elaborate shrines to the death saint popping up on major roadways and mass-market goods appearing next to those of real saints, dismaying many Catholics. Adoration of this image, believed to be the patron saint of drug traffickers, is not authorized and, in fact, is a sin, religious leaders say. "It shows ignorance of the faith, because Santa Muerte doesn't exist as a person," said Father Alberto Monjarás of the Iglesia del Santo Niño. "It's only the transition from this world to eternity." La...

Three Nuevo Laredo teenagers allegedly connected to a large-scale border car-theft ring were arrested Wednesday after a Laredo Police Department surveillance team caught the trio entering a stolen car in the parking lot of a hardware store. Laredo Police Department spokesperson Joe E. Baeza said the three - a 14-year-old minor, and Arturo Carillo Suarez and Tomas Diaz-Vasquez, both 17 - were also found in possession of 12 Ford master keys that police believe the group was using to steal vehicles prior to their Wednesday arrest. Two of the teens were first seen acting suspiciously near the intersection of Garden...

NUEVO LAREDO When Roberto Martinez and his family crossed into Mexico from Laredo over the weekend, they were planning to travel to the interior to visit family members.Instead, just minutes after they arrived in this city via the Lincoln-Juarez International Bridge, they were accosted in broad daylight by a group of armed, masked men claiming to be federal agents. The family members were forced to get out of their 2002 Chevrolet Suburban and turn over all of their money, credit cards and jewelry before they were released unharmed. The thieves also took the Suburban, leaving the family members in the...

LAREDO — Mexican President Felipe Calderón's offensive against drug cartels has been ticking off small victories, but progress is at a standstill for families here whose loved ones have disappeared across the border. More than 60 U.S. citizens from Laredo have gone missing in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, in the past four years, many presumed kidnapped by drug traffickers. Their stories grabbed the attention of politicians and the media during the peak of the violence in Nuevo Laredo, becoming the faces of the victims of the drug cartels. Relatives formed a group — Laredo's Missing — that became a lobbying and...

NUEVO LAREDO - A man ignoring a checkpoint northwest of the city was shot and killed by a Mexican Army soldier Sunday morning. The incident reportedly took place at 11 a.m. at the inspection station on the highway to Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas state. The victim, identified as Héctor Adrián Salazar Hernández, 27, was reportedly driving a 2007 Nissan Murano station wagon without license plates. Salazar Hernández reportedly began his trip in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, with a passenger whom police did not identify. According to reports, Salazar Hernández drove past soldiers who were signaling him to stop for a routine inspection. Reports...

NUEVO LAREDO - Men wearing military style uniforms kidnapped a Command, Control, Computer and Communications Center (C-4) supervisor and operator after they left work Friday. The supervisor and operator, both females, and a man not related to C-4, were captured at the latter's home in the 2200 block of Juarez Avenue en Colonia Juarez, seven blocks from the C-4 offices. A law enforcement official who asked not to be identified originally said two people were with the C-4 employees when they were kidnapped, but later said it was one. Francisco Arturo Morales Cabral, C-4 coordinator, said the kidnapping took place...

NUEVO LAREDO — A city tourist guide who was shot Monday afternoon just one block from International Bridge I has died from his injuries.Martín Filiberto Silva Cardoza, known as “El Negro” was shot six times with a 9-mm weapon at 5:45 p.m. Monday as he was walking along Avenida Guerrero. He was taken to Hospital General de Zona “Solidaridad,” where he died Tuesday night. Police officials said witnesses reported seeing a young man come out of a dark-colored truck and open fire at Silva Cardoza, 42. The man then jumped back into the vehicle and fled. An autopsy showed Silva...

NUEVO LAREDO — Nearly 200 additional soldiers and AFI agents descended on the Sister City on Sunday, barely two days after four men — including a federal highway patrol officer — were found executed with warnings from one drug cartel to another.Neither the Agencia Federal de Investigaciones (known as AFI, an agency similar to the United States’ FBI), nor the federal Defense Department would provide information about the operation, but new checkpoints were seen in various parts of the city. Witnesses saw military vehicles rumbling into the city Sunday afternoon as they crossed the 26-kilometer marker of the National Highway....

MONTERREY, Mexico, May 11 (Reuters) - Hit men from Mexico's Gulf Cartel drug gang handcuffed three men and shot them dead at a death cult altar on Friday, leaving lit candles, flowers and a taunting message for rivals in a worsening drug war. Police near the northern city of Nuevo Laredo found the corpses at a shrine to Santa Muerte, a religious figure worshiped by criminals and many of Mexico's poor. "This is for everyone who messes with the Gulf Cartel. Welcome to Nuevo Laredo, bunch of assholes," read the message, written on orange paper and taped to a wall...

A Lubbock-area man suspected of wounding a U.S. Border Patrol agent during a Wednesday afternoon shootout at the Rio Grande, was returned to the United States Thursday morning after being captured in Nuevo Laredo. “He’s in U.S. custody right now, but he hasn’t been arraigned yet,” said Border Patrol spokesman Sara Melendez. Jordan Davidson, 21, of Ranson Canyon, faces charges of aggravated assault on a police officer. Davidson is accused of shooting agent Jesus Aguilar, 28, in the hand during a confrontation at the riverbank in Laredo. “This individual was down there on the river, and set off some electronic...

LAREDO — If the teenage hitman had stayed locked up in his concrete cell after the first murder, maybe Moises Garcia would still sing goofy Spanish songs to his son. Maybe Noe Lopez, a 27-year-old father of four, wouldn't be buried under a sapling in the city cemetery. Maybe. If a judge hadn't reduced Gabriel Cardona's bail after the second murder charge, perhaps Mariano Resendez would be close to finishing his junior year of high school. If the justice of the peace hadn't decreased Cardona's bail on another murder charge and a charge of engaging in organized crime from a...