Free Republic

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...