Border Guard Bounty at $200,000

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 24, 2000 | by Wilson Elvin

The U.S. Border Patrol union is protesting a recent incident involving a border crossing by Mexican soldiers into New Mexico. The soldiers fired two shots in what the union says was an attempt to collect a bounty from drag dealers for killing U.S. border guards. The Los Angeles Times said the official U.S. government reaction was that the invasion was an accident, but Joseph Dassaro, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, disagreed. "That was no accident," he said, noting that the Mexican soldiers proceeded at least a mile into U.S. territory firing at fleeing U.S. agents.

The Times said U.S. officials have confirmed reports of a bounty of $200,000 placed on U.S. law-enforcement officers by the Juarez cartel, one of Mexico's major drug-smuggling organizations. As many as 63 incursions by the Mexican army have been reported into U.S. territory, border sources tell Insight. Reportedly supporting cartel drag shipments as long as two miles this side of the border, the Mexican troops were driving Humvees and carrying AK-47 assault rifles allegedly seized by U.S. forces in Operation Desert Storm and provided to Mexico by the United States as surplus.