Only On KFOX: Border Sheriffs Still Believe Mexican Military Involved In Incursion
Two border sheriffs told KFOX they still believe the Mexican military is involved in a Hudspeth County incursion.
The sheriffs in El Paso and Hudspeth counties said they disagree with a recent finding by the Border Patrol.
Instead, they believe Mexican soldiers were indeed involved in the Jan. 22 Hudspeth County incursion.
According to Huspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, the Jan. 22 incursion took place along the U.S.-Mexico border between Hudspeth County sheriff's deputies and drug smugglers.
It was then that deputies said they saw what looked to be men dressed in Mexican military uniforms crossing illegally into the U.S.
But, Tuesday night on KFOX, Chief Border Patrol Agent David Aguilar said the Mexican military was not involved in this incursion.
"All the evidence they have gathered from the investigation points to the individuals and the equipment that was involved was in fact not government of Mexico or military equipment," said Aguilar.
But, El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego and West disagree.
"Well I believe that it was Mexican military," said Samaniego.
"I would love to see this evidence. I have not heard of any of this evidence,"said West.
Instead, both sheriffs say they have more evidence showing that the Mexican military was involved in the Jan 22 incursion.
"The uniforms, the arms, the maneuvers, flanking maneuver that they went through, the humvee with the three soldiers, one of them holding a .50- caliber machine gun -- if it was not the army, I would be looking out there right now to see who the heck it is," Samaniego said.
West believes these types of incursions will continue if they don't find out exactly what happened on Jan. 22. In fact, he said that his deputies just recently caught a Mexican officer.
"This was a Mexican officer that we caught well into the county, way away from the border, that was obviously tracking or trying to track the routes that lead to the border. When we detained him and we called his comandante in Jaurez, he did confirm that he did work with Mexican customs," West said.
And while the chief Border Patrol agent told KFOX that the patrol has a strong level of communication and coordination with the Mexican government, both sheriffs said they are not seeing this.
"It is still the same scenario -- we have the drug runners running just as hard as they were before Jan. 23, and I don't see any cooperation from Mexico trying to stop it," said West.
"The only way you can say they are not the Mexican army is when you capture the ones who were there posing as Mexican army and I don't see that happening," said Samaniego.
Thursday the border sheriffs are meeting for the first time since Operation Linebacker started and they say they will be discussing this and other incursions, including the one KFOX witnessed on Jan. 31.
Then on Friday, for the second part of the conference, they will sit down with the Border Patrol for an open forum.
The sheriffs said they hope to see the Border Patrols evidence showing that the Mexican military wasnt involved.
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