Tense On The Border: Patrol Agents Fire 300 Rounds Against Mexican Gangs

From the UK’s Daily Mail:

Border patrol officials exchanged up to 300 rounds of gunfire with drug runners from Mexico but just six came from the suspects, authorities admitted.

In a show of power which appears to have been massively over the top, officials released hundreds of rounds of fire during the pre-dawn shoot-out across the Rio Grande on Thursday, killing up to three of the suspects.

Authorities eventually admitted the heavy handed response after initially claiming the officers had been under ‘heavy fire’.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, whose Rangers were involved in the shootout, maintained, however, that such an overwhelming response was standard given the United States’s zero tolerance policy when guns are pointed at authorities.

The incident began at about 6.30am on Thursday, when U.S. Border Patrol agents spotted a Dodge Durango near the lightly populated border town of Abram, Texas.

Agents who gave chase found the truck abandoned on the banks of the Rio Grande, while a group of people on the Mexican shore unloaded bundles of marijuana from rubber rafts, according to the Department of Public Safety.

Border Patrol agents said Mexican smugglers often use small, high-quality rafts to float drugs into U.S. territory, where they load them onto waiting vehicles to be taken further north.

The group threw rocks and shot ‘at least six’ rounds at American agents, who responded by flooding the area with gunfire, the Department of Public Safety said.

A U.S. Border Patrol boat was the first to arrive on the scene, followed by boats from Texas Parks and Wildlife and one belonging to the Texas Rangers.

You can read the full report here.