2006年VOA标准英语-U.S. Officials Deal with Drug Smuggling at

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By Greg Flakus
Hudspeth County, Texas
17 February 2006
 
watch Mexican Border report 

 
Guarding the Mexican border on horseback
  
There has been tension along the US-Mexico border in recent weeks following alleged¹ incursions by Mexican military units guarding illicit² drug shipments.

As VOA's Greg Flakus reports from the border in Hudspeth County, in far-west Texas, local officials are worried about the potential for violent clashes.

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Hudspeth County's Chief Deputy Sheriff Mike Doyal was among the lawmen who came to the scene of a border drug smuggling³ operation on January 23.

Hudspeth County's Chief Deputy Sheriff Mike Doyal standing⁴ along the Rio Grande River  
  
It happened here, on the Rio Grande River, which forms the boundary between Texas and Mexico.  Chief Deputy Doyal says his men were held at bay on this side of the border by heavily armed men who appeared to be Mexican soldiers.

"There was a military-style Humvee on the Mexican side,” said the deputy sheriff. “One of my first officers on the scene said it had been on this side with two subjects in it, one in the back with a heavy machine gun and one in the front with an assault-type weapon."

This vehicle became stuck while trying to cross the border  
  
One of the vehicles the U.S. lawmen had pursued to the border became stuck in the river near the Mexican bank. Armed men unloaded the suspected drug load from the vehicle and then set the vehicle on fire and left the scene.

 
Luis Ernesto Derbez, foreign minister of Mexico 
  
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza demanded an investigation⁵ of the alleged incursion, but Mexico's Foreign Minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, denied any Mexican troops had been involved. He suggested drug traffickers had been posing as military men. 

That response provided little comfort to U.S. law enforcement officials like Mike Doyal.

"We have always tried to enjoy a good, working cooperative relationship with Mexico and would like to see it continue, but ultimately when it comes to cleaning up what is on the south side of the Texas border, it is up to the Mexican government. We cannot do it for them," said Doyal.

The incident on the river in Hudspeth County drew fire from the group that calls itself The Minutemen, and other groups calling for stricter control of the border. They cited over 200 other cases in which armed men, sometimes dressed in military uniforms, crossed over the border. Some incidents involved violence or threats against U.S. law officers.  

 
Doug Mosier
  
The increased violence concerns the U.S. Border Patrol. El Paso Sector⁶ spokesman Doug Mosier says agents face constant danger.  "We have had agents shot, we have agents physically⁷ assaulted, we have had agents rocked (People on the Mexican side throw rocks at the agents) from time to time."

Mosier says efforts to tighten control of the border after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have resulted in more criminal gang violence directed at agents on patrol