The soldiers, one of whom was found with marijuana, said they weren’t aware they had crossed the border
by the El Reportero‘s wire services
Fourteen Mexican soldiers were detained by U.S. officials for several hours early on Saturday after they entered U.S. territory at El Paso, Texas, across the border from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
The soldiers, who crossed the bridge between the cities in two military vehicles, said they didn’t realize they had entered the United States.
The newspaper El Heraldo Chihuahua reported they were from southern Mexico and had only recently arrived at the northern border.
Border agents secured weapons and equipment for “safety and processing,” said U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), adding that Mexican military leadership was contacted and arrived shortly after.
Thirteen of the soldiers were processed without incident, but one was given a civil penalty after CBP officers discovered a small quantity of marijuana in his possession.
The soldiers appeared to have been handcuffed according to Reuters. Their vehicles and weapons were returned to them when they were released.
The border crossing was closed for about two hours due to the incident, a witness said.
One witness, who asked not to be named, described the tense moments when border officials stopped the soldiers. “The CBP yelled at the soldiers to put their hands up and drop their weapons immediately.”
Involuntary border crossings by Mexican military forces have occurred in the past, the newspaper El Universal reported, but usually in areas where the border is not clearly marked, rather than on international bridges.
With reports from Reuters, El Heraldo Chihuahua and El Universal
Ex-drug lords unite against ‘harassment’ in maximum security prison
The three men claim they have undergone ‘psychological torture’
The jailed former leaders of three drug cartels have shown their diplomatic side, coming together to make a joint complaint about their prison conditions.
The three men allege harassment and psychological torture by prison staff at the Altiplano maximum-security prison in México state.
The complainants are Servando Gómez Martínez, the former leader of the Knights Templar cartel in Michoacán; Mario Cárdenas Guillén, who led the Gulf Cartel in Tamaulipas; and Fernando Sánchez Arellano, the former leader of the Tijuana Cartel in Baja California.
The Attorney General’s Office requested that the judge who accepted the lawsuit dismiss the case but the request was turned down.
The three complainants have been provided by a public defense lawyer to argue their case.
The complaint was also signed by a string of other convicted cartel personnel, including former members of the Sinaloa Cartel and the former head of Los Zetas, which previously waged a civil war against the Gulf Cartel.
Cárdenas, recognized by the aliases “M-1” and “El Gordo,” served a first stint in prison from 1995 to 2007 and was released upon finishing his sentence.
He was arrested a second time in 2012 and given 20 years.
Gómez, also known as “La Tuta,” was arrested in 2015 and charged for organized crime, kidnapping, and drug trafficking offenses. In 2019, he was sentenced to 55 years in jail for the kidnapping of a businessman in 2011.
He faked a heart attack to enable Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s second prison escape in 2015.
ánchez, also known as “The Engineer,” was arrested in 2014. News website Infobae reported last year that the only standing charge against him was for money laundering.
With reports from Milenio.
