Drug cartels threaten U.S. City Police Deptartment

Violence along the U-S Mexico border has for the most part stayed on the Mexican side. But, a recent incident involving a Nogales police officer may have changed the tide. For the first time in the history of the Nogales Police Department, threats have been made against the entire police force. The Nogales Police Chief has put out an alert to law enforcement officers saying a Mexican drug cartel has threatened officers to stay away from conducting off-duty drug busts. If they don't, they'll be targeted by a sniper or by other means. It was two weeks ago when Officer Angulo, Officer Gaston Ortega, and a third officer responded to an off-duty officers request for assistance. The officer had come across drug smugglers who he says has more than 400 pounds of marijuana. Officer Gaston Ortega says, "When I talked to the officer more or less to get a location on him, he said the mules or the backpackers were surrounding him and he was by himself." The off-duty officer was with another person from the Bar K S Ranch. They were looking for cattle that had wandered off. Once the officers came to the aid of the off-duty officer and were able to secure the marijuana, the smugglers ran back towards the border. Border Patrol Agents apprehended three of them, but three more got away. The Nogales Police Chief says through informants, they received word from the drug cartels that, "their off-duty officers not in uniform are to ignore or look the other way when there are narcotics flowing across the border."...more