FLE

A new role for the undermanned Border Patrol

National Guard troops deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of President Bush's plan to free U.S. Border Patrol agents have been assigned bodyguards -- some of the same agents the soldiers were sent to relieve. Several veteran Border Patrol agents in Arizona told The Washington Times they were issued standing orders to be within five minutes of National Guard troops along the border and that Border Patrol units were pulled from other regions to protect the Guard units -- leaving their own areas short-handed. The agents, who refer to the assignment as "the nanny patrol," said most of the Guard troops are not allowed to carry loaded weapons, despite a significant increase in border violence directed at Border Patrol agents and other law-enforcement personnel over the past year. The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which represents all 10,000 of the agency's nonsupervisory agents, said the presence of more than 6,000 Guard troops on the border has allowed a few hundred agents to be reassigned from administrative to field duties, but that "about the same number are now assigned to guard the National Guard troops.". "Other agents are being assigned to supervise the National Guard troops, who are performing different administrative tasks," said NBPC President T.J. Bonner, a 28-year Border Patrol veteran. "Overtime has been authorized for these duties, but was not authorized for patrolling the border prior to the arrival of the National Guard."....

Feds Nab Mexican Drug Kingpin Responsible for Border Tunnels

Mexican drug lord Javier Arellano-Felix has been apprehended after Drug Enforcement Administration officials were tipped off that the kingpin was aboard a boat in international waters near the U.S.-Mexican border. Federal drug agents and the Coast Guard arrested Arellano-Felix, 37, on a private vessel in the Sea of Cortez off La Paz, Mexico, federal officials said Wednesday. Arellano-Felix is a leader of a violent gang responsible for digging elaborate tunnels to smuggle drugs under the U.S. border, a Justice Department official said. Arrellano-Felix is wanted in both the United States and Mexico for his role as a leader in the Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix gang, which includes seven brothers and four sisters from the Arellano family....