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Crackdown on animal-rights activists

Animal-rights activists around the country - at least the most extreme - are becoming increasingly militant. And law enforcement officials and lawmakers are stepping up efforts to combat those who break the law. These interconnected trends came to a head in New Jersey last week when an animal rights group and six of its members were convicted of inciting violence in their campaign to shut down a company that uses animals to test drugs and other consumer products. The group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), claims its actions constitute free speech. But federal prosecutors and the jury in a Trenton, N.J., courtroom called it harassment, stalking, and conspiracy - the first such conviction under the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act. The lab, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the largest of its kind in the world, is based in Britain and New Jersey. Members of the US House and Senate are sponsoring the "Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act." It would toughen the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act by imposing penalties for veiled threats to individuals and families, economic disruption or damage, and "tertiary targeting." Along with the recent indictment of ALF activists charged with arson and other crimes in Oregon and other parts of the West, the convictions in New Jersey are a setback for extremist animal-rights activists....

Border issues near boiling point

Witnesses told Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship subcommittee, at a hearing on border violence that without cooperation from Mexico, combined with federal support from the United States, the situation at the border will continue to deteriorate. Cornyn focused the hearing on recent reports of Mexican military incursions into the United States, increasing border violence against law enforcement officials and the need for better border technology. The hearing comes on the heels of the well-publicized encounter in Hudspeth County in west Texas between law-enforcement officers and organized drug dealers dressed in Mexican military uniforms. "Regardless of what kind of story the Mexican government is making up, I can tell you this -- my deputies had an armed standoff with Mexican military," said Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, who attended the Senate hearing. West testified on Feb. 7 before the House Subcommittee on Investigations that Mexican military personnel have been assisting narcotics traffickers. "We even checked the VIN number of the Humvee vehicle used in the incursion and it belongs to the Mexican military," he said. "There is still an ongoing investigation into the incident."....

Sections of Mexican border called virtual war zone

State and federal law enforcement officers appeared before senators Wednesday to paint a horrific picture of life on the Southwest border, telling of violent assaults, running gunbattles, brazen cross-border incursions and threatened contract killings of U.S. officers. The hearing, co-chaired by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., prompted calls for a border crackdown to combat what Kyl described as "bad, nasty, dangerous people." U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar showed slides of battered agents, telling senators that his officers increasingly fall victim to attacks by assailants firing weapons, hurling rocks or pursuing the agents with vehicles. One current weapon of choice, he said, is a "Molotov rock" -- a rock wrapped in fabric then set ablaze. Val Verde County Sheriff A. D'Wayne Jernigan, head of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition, said in written testimony that authorities have received information that Mexican drug rings plan to kill as many U.S. police officers as possible in an attempt to intimidate U.S. authorities. "The drug trafficking organizations have the money, equipment and stamina to carry out their threats," Jernigan said. "They are determined to protect their illicit trade."....

Sheriffs testify that border overtaken by criminals

The number of border patrol officers assaulted has doubled in the past fiscal year. More illegal immigrants are dying in the deserts of Arizona and Texas. And sophisticated smuggling rings are using tunnels and military-style uniforms to bring drugs into this country. That's the dire picture of life along the border between the United States and Mexico painted by border patrol and customs officials, a Texas rancher and sheriffs at a Senate hearing Wednesday on border violence. "The problems along the border will continue unless our federal government does something about it soon," said A. D'Wayne Jernigan, a Texas sheriff for Val Verde County. "Must we wait until an officer gets killed or until another terrorist attack occurs?" U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials pointed the finger at Congress for not providing enough funding to maintain control of the porous southern border, while some members of the Senate panel blamed the clogged federal bureaucracies for failing to put a dent in the number of illegal immigrants who enter this country every year....

Border sheriffs beg Congress for help

Southwest border sheriffs vented their frustration with the federal government Wednesday and urged a Senate panel to crack down on illegal immigration to reduce violence along the U.S.-Mexico border. The hearing focused on reports of recent incursions into U.S. territory by Mexican military, as well as an increase in assaults on law enforcement agents and an escalation in crime. Lavoyger Durham, manager of the El Tule Ranch near Falfurrias, said ranchers are fired upon, security guards beaten and women threatened on their property by undocumented immigrants entering the country illegally. "It is also sad to report that we often find immigrants on our properties that are dead and dying," Durham said. "Whenever possible, we take them for medical care, but often, it is too late." Larry Dever, Cochise County sheriff, said Mexican smugglers along the Arizona border are "armed with high-capacity assault weapons and with orders to protect their cargo at all costs."....

Senators demand larger effort on border control

Worried by the growing violence at the Southwest border against Border Patrol agents, the public and illegal immigrants, senators demanded more help Wednesday from the federal government – and better use of Texas sheriffs and other local law enforcement agencies. Appearing before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, Texas and Arizona sheriffs and a South Texas rancher detailed a border in crisis: rising assaults and threats against U.S. officers; men in battle dress uniforms sneaking into the U.S. and snipers firing across the Rio Grande at Border Patrol agents; migrants found dead or dying in desolate regions; and increased crime against Texans living near the border. In some areas, border residents routinely leave food and water in coolers outside their homes when they're gone to deter break-ins by famished migrants, Lavoyger Durham, manager of a ranch near Falfurrias, told the senators. "My neighbors and I are facing circumstances that can best be described as deplorable," Mr. Durham said. "We now must live with the constant possibility that we could be attacked or killed on our own properties." Mr. Cornyn said Defense Department assets, including unmanned aerial vehicles, could be used in support of the Border Patrol and other Homeland Security Department agencies. And Mr. Sessions noted that the nation's 750,000 state and local law enforcement personnel could be a huge force multiplier for the fewer than 11,500 Border Patrol agents and 5,500 ICE agents. The federal government has agreements with only a handful of police departments to assist in enforcing immigration law, Ms. Forman conceded....

Rural areas targeted for meth production

Old abandoned farm buildings are the prime targets for rural meth labs. They provide two key ingredients for the manufacture of methamphetamine - privacy and the availability of anhydrous ammonia. Methamphetamine is the most common synthetic drug manufactured in the United States. It is also one of the most addictive and dangerous. People who make meth are called "cooks." These cooks combine a number of toxic ingredients including lithium from batteries, pseudoephedrine from Sudafed and anhydrous ammonia or iodine. The most economical and widely used source of nitrogen fertilizer in agriculture production, anhydrous ammonia is stored at farms and retail facilities throughout the country. Meth cooks steal it from the units where it is stored under pressure. One gallon of anhydrous ammonia is enough to make about $6,000 worth of methamphetamine. But stealing it is dangerous. Thieves remove plugs from the anhydrous ammonia lines or attach the wrong hoses and fittings to storage containers, causing leaks and spills. A spill like this could lead to the inhalation of airborne concentrations of the gas and cause injuries to the land owner, law enforcement and the criminals themselves. Some cooks even make the meth right at the tank sight, leaving several dangerous chemicals for land owners to clean up. There are a couple of ways farmers can deter the theft of their anhydrous ammonia. Initially developed in Illinois, GloTell is an organic and non-toxic additive for anhydrous ammonia tanks. To use it, farmers and dealers inject the clear substance into their ammonia tanks. When it comes out and gets air, the substance is bright pink and stains everything it touches. The stain can be washed off, but remains visible to ultraviolet light for up to 72 hours. According to the GloTell website, meth cooked with treated ammonia will turn fluorescent pink and stain the noses of those who snort it and the injection sight of those who shoot it. In addition, farmers can see exactly where their anhydrous ammonia tank is leaking....