cannabisnews.com: DEA on Alert After Alleged Threat





DEA on Alert After Alleged Threat
Posted by FoM on February 14, 2000 at 21:31:50 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: New York Times
U.S. drug agents have been asked to take extra precautions after being warned that a Mexican drug cartel had offered a $200,000 reward for killing a federal officer, an agency spokesman said Monday. Michael McManus, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said agents have been put on ``heightened alert'' in the past two months, and agents along the Southwest border have been advised to travel in pairs. 
McManus said another federal law enforcement agency alerted the DEA about the bounty offer. He wouldn't provide further details. The threat coincided with a joint Mexico-FBI investigation into mass graves in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso. Mexican authorities have said there are indications that at least seven of the nine victims unearthed may have been killed by a Juarez-based cartel headed by the Carrillo Fuentes family. According to an internal memo circulated by the Border Patrol, the $200,000 offer was made by that cartel, Border Patrol spokesman Jorge Swank said. ``On average, once or twice a year we hear a rumor of that nature,'' said Roy Villareal, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's San Diego sector. ``It's become a fact of life for us.'' El Paso, Texas (AP) Published: February 14, 2000Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company CannabisNews DEA Search & Archives:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/DEA.shtmlhttp://www.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/asearch?type=all&query=cannabisnews+DEA
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on February 14, 2000 at 22:10:51 PT
Related Article: Border Patrol Facing Threats
Border Patrol Facing Threats Drug cartel reportedly puts $200,000 bounty on agents By James PinkertonHouston ChronicleFebruary 14, 2000http://www.chron.com/Border Patrol officers in West Texas are strapping on bulletproof vests because of a reported $200,000 bounty on federal agents offered by the Juarez drug cartel, an agency spokesman said Monday. "We're not being alarmists, the threats are serious," said Jorge Swank, a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Border Patrol in Marfa. "We're just making sure our officers are aware and exercise extreme caution ... we're making sure they're on the lookout," Swank said. Swank would not provide specifics on the alleged bounty, which was outlined in an internal Border Patrol memo reported by an El Paso television station. The report claimed the bounty was offered by the Juarez cartel and extended to all federal agencies with a presence on the southwest border. Other federal law agencies would not confirm the bounty. "Basically, we're not acknowledging that or commenting on it at all," said FBI agent Andrea Simmons in El Paso. Swank said agents in the Marfa sector, a remote area which includes 420 miles along the Rio Grande, are seizing more narcotics as drug traffickers shift operations to areas with limited enforcement. Since October, agents in Marfa have seized $104 million worth of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, he said. "All indications are the Border Patrol strategy is working," said Swank, referring to containment operations along the border in San Diego, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley. "The only places the drug traffickers and alien smugglers will push to is Del Rio and Marfa." In El Paso, Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said death threats by drug traffickers have occurred before. "We have had in the past some reported threats made by various drug cartels, and the last one was issued a couple of months ago," he said. "At any rate, we do not dismiss these allegations, and we always make agents in the field aware of any kind of intelligence" relating to death threats, Mosier said. Published: February 14, 2000Copyright 2000 Houston Chronicle Rio Grande Valley Bureau 
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