Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Armed escorts join border ag inspectors

State agricultural inspectors are now accompanied by armed sheriff’s deputies while working in far southern New Mexico because of escalating violence along the U.S. border with Mexico. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere here,” livestock scale inspector David Turning of the New Mexico Department of Agriculture told KRQE News 13. Turning was one of two scale inspectors escorted by deputies Monday from the Luna and Hidalgo county sheriff’s departments in a program funded by the Homeland Security Department’s “Operation Stone Garden”. “We did a perimeter check making sure there’s nobody out hiding in the brush close by us,” Luna County Sgt. Steve Gallegos said. The inspectors’ job takes them to some of the most remote and dangerous sections of New Mexico.Law enforcement officers said the escorts are a good idea because certain sections of southern New Mexico are especially dangerous. “It’s pretty crazy out there,” Hidalgo County Cpl. Gary Lassiter said. “We have Mexican nationals that we have on our side with guns in the mountains.”..more

Here is the KRQE-TV video report:

No comments: