Excerpted from EmergencyNet News Service - Wednesday, March 5, 1997 - ESR Vol. 1 - 064

OFFICER SAFETY ALERT IN EFFECT FOR POLICE GOING INTO MEXICO
By Steve Macko, ENN Editor

SAN DIEGO (ENN) - U.S. law enforcement authorities have issued an Officer's Safety Alert for any federal, state or local agents or officers traveling in Mexico. Undercover informants working with several agencies, including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Border Patrol and the California Highway Patrol, have reported threats that drug trafficking gangs in Mexico may be intent on wanting to murder a U.S. law enforcement officer.

The undercover informants have not indicated any specific person or agency that is targeted. One U.S. Border Patrol agent said, "These threats have been validated through multiple sources and agencies."

The U.S. Border Patrol has responded to the information by cutting back on the number of trips its agents take into Mexico. Agents have also been advised to travel in pairs when they cross the border.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has instituted tougher protective measures for its agents. The DEA has cut all travel into border areas until Mexico changes its policy of not allowing U.S. enforcement agents to carry their weapons into Mexico.

Officially, U.S. agents were never allowed to carry weapons into Mexico, but many did anyway and Mexican authorities usually looked the other way. Now, the Mexican government has said that the policy will be enforced. In response to that policy, the DEA has responded by pulling out its agents involved in cross-training and intelligence- gathering projects in Mexican border areas.

"The Mexicans will have to come here, now," said Erol Chavez, the special-agent-in-charge of the DEA's San Diego field office.

Concerns about U.S. law enforcement officers working and traveling in Mexico have been fueled by a number of gangland-style killings in the border cities of Tijuana and Mexicali. Many of the murdered victims were reported to have connections to Mexican police agencies.

Imperial County, California, Sheriff Oren Fox says that there have been at least nine gangland-style homicides in Mexicali and the violence there has started to spill over the border into the United States. Fox said, "Three times I've had to call for assistance because officers here were under fire."

The Imperial County Sheriff's Department has warned its deputies to check with its communications center before traveling into Mexico for any reason. Even if off-duty.

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