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AUSTIN, Texas - U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspectors returned 33 Mexican soldiers on Tuesday who inadvertently crossed over the Rio Grande river into Texas, authorities said.
The soldiers, packed into four Humvees, crossed over the Donna-Rio Bravo International Bridge into south Texas at around 2 p.m., said Felix Garza, a spokesman for CBP in Pharr, Texas.
"They crossed the boundary line on the bridge. Once they did that they were forced to continue traveling to our primary inspection area," Garza told Reuters.
"They were processed according to protocols, and they were released and returned to Mexico without incident or charges," he added, declining to say whether the troops were armed.
In a statement late Tuesday, the Mexican military said the troops "unintentionally" crossed over the bridge while they were carrying out reconnaissance on the border.
After clarifying the error with U.S. authorities, they returned to Mexico and continued their "routine activities," it said.
Since taking office nearly five years ago, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed thousands of troops to curb powerful cartels hauling billions of dollars in drugs to the United States.
The bridge links the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas with a stretch of Mexico's northern Tamaulipas state where the rival Gulf cartel and Zetas gang are locked in a bloody war for lucrative trafficking routes.
Garza said it was not the first time that troops had strayed over the border into Texas.
"It's an event that has happened before and there's protocols in place for something like that. We are in constant communication with our Mexican partners," he added.
The U.S. governments anti-drug smuggling offensive on the Mexican border has caused a balloon effect that is expected to spur more narcotics trafficking through the Caribbean, South Floridas top federal official warned Thursday. Cocaine and other illegal drugs flooding the United States are still flowing mostly through a pipeline from Colombia to Mexico across the Southwest border. But the trend is expected to shift, U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said in Miami Thursday. Were hitting them hard there, Ferrer told reporters. Its only a matter of time before we see an increase here.
Ferrer highlighted the menacing trend to announce the Caribbean Basin Initiative, a plan to add two more federal prosecutors to his narcotics section. They will work with federal agents to target the anticipated uptick. The U.S attorney spoke about the development while unveiling an indictment charging 13 men with conspiring to transport hundreds of kilos of Colombian cocaine on U.S.-registered planes. The aircraft allegedly departed from Apure, a state in Venezuela, and dropped the loads into the ocean off the coast of the British Virgin Islands.
The smugglers used go-fast boats to retrieve the cocaine, which was allegedly destined for the United States, authorities said. But Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized most of it after the pick-ups. Ferrer spotlighted the Caribbean Basin Initiative six months after announcing what he called a new front in the fight against Colombian traffickers.
The previous effort focused on about 30 emerging groups competing to replace the once-powerful drug cartels in Medellin, Cali and the North Valley of Colombia, which authorities say have been largely dismantled. Four new prosecutors were teamed up with DEA, FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, in an alliance with Colombian authorities, to go after so-called bandas criminales, or criminal groups.
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The Obama administration has expanded its role in Mexicos fight against organized crime by allowing the Mexican police to stage cross-border drug raids from inside the United States, according to senior administration and military officials. Mexican commandos have discreetly traveled to the United States, assembled at designated areas and dispatched helicopter missions back across the border aimed at suspected drug traffickers. The Drug Enforcement Administration provides logistical support on the American side of the border, officials said, arranging staging areas and sharing intelligence that helps guide Mexicos decisions about targets and tactics.
Officials said these so-called boomerang operations were intended to evade the surveillance and corrupting influences of the criminal organizations that closely monitor the movements of security forces inside Mexico. And they said the efforts were meant to provide settings with tight security for American and Mexican law enforcement officers to collaborate in their pursuit of criminals who operate on both sides of the border. Although the operations remain rare, they are part of a broadening American campaign aimed at blunting the power of Mexican cartels that have built criminal networks spanning the world and have started a wave of violence in Mexico that has left more than 35,000 people dead.
Many aspects of the campaign remain secret, because of legal and political sensitivities. But in recent months, details have begun to emerge, revealing efforts that would have been unthinkable five years ago. Mexicos president, Felipe Calderón, who was elected in 2006, has broken with his countrys historic suspicion of the United States and has enlisted Washingtons help in defeating the cartels, a central priority for his government. American Predator and Global Hawk drones now fly deep over Mexico to capture video of drug production facilities and smuggling routes. Manned American aircraft fly over Mexican targets to eavesdrop on cellphone communications. And the D.E.A. has set up an intelligence outpost staffed by Central Intelligence Agency operatives and retired American military personnel on a Mexican military base.
There has always been a willingness and desire on the part of the United States to play more of a role in Mexicos efforts, said Eric L. Olson, an expert on Mexico at the Woodrow Wilson Center. But there have been some groundbreaking developments on the Mexican side where were seeing officials who are willing to take some risks, even political risks, by working closely with the United States to carry out very sensitive missions.
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