Free Republic

Ditches don’t always deter raids, but federal troops can’t be spared CUAUHTEMOC, Mexico — Little town, big hell. That proverb about turmoil in small communities has never seemed truer than in this gangster-besieged village and a neighboring one in the bean fields and desert scrub a long day’s drive south of the Rio Grande. That proverb about turmoil in small communities has never seemed truer than in this gangster-besieged village and a neighboring one in the bean fields and desert scrub a long day’s drive south of the Rio Grande. Since right before Christmas, armed raiders repeatedly have swept into...

McALLEN — The leader of the criminal gang Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos could be facing life in prison after being convicted on drug distribution and weapons charges relating to a 2006 home invasion in McAllen. Jesus Espinoza, 29, along with three other men, was found guilty in McAllen federal court on Tuesday after a seven day trial, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston. On July 17, 2006 gang members were spotted by police coming in and out of a home at the intersection of 2nd Street and Gardenia Avenue with packages of cocaine. According to police, they had just...

Authorities arrested 11 alleged Hermandad de Pistoleros Latinos gang members and the alleged gang leader this week, marking the beginning of the end of a nearly three-year-long investigation. The arrests were made Thursday and Friday as part of several raids executed by Laredo police, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and area law enforcement as part of the investigation dubbed "Operation Pistol Whipped" which began in May 2003. Authorities raided several homes in Laredo and Houston in the pre-dawn hours. Nine people were arrested Thursday in Laredo and two more were arrested in Houston. A twelfth suspect, another Laredoan,...

WASHINGTON — Paramilitary enforcers for Mexican drug cartels are responsible for a wave of violence in Nuevo Laredo that poses a serious threat for residents on both sides of the Southwest border, U.S. law enforcement officials told a House committee Thursday. Assassinations, kidnappings and daylight shootouts between military-trained gangs place citizens at risk along the border where violence has soared past historical norms, officials said. "These paramilitary groups work for the cartels as enforcers and are a serious threat to public safety on both sides of the border," said Chris Swecker, the FBI assistant director for the criminal investigative division....