Grenades, .50 caliber machine guns on U.S. border

Mexican drug cartels are “killing each other” with .50-caliber machine guns and grenades just across the U.S. border with Mexico, sources have told WND. The gun battles are occurring near Fort Huachuca, Ariz., which is the location of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and school. The Army center is 15 miles from the Mexican border, but the installation runs up against the border. A source associated with the center said that only a “three-strand barbwire fence” is keeping any spillover of heavily armed cartel members out of the compound. Students at the post have had only basic training and haven’t handled weapons beyond the M-16, which shoots a 5.56 mm round, roughly equivalent to a .223 caliber, which is less than half the size of the .50 caliber. The episode is the latest flare-up in what American ranchers living along Arizona’s southern border say is a virtual war zone. Mark J. Dannels, sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona, said border security “should be a primary issue even before we talk about immigration reform.” Dannels has spent 25 years in law enforcement along the border. “All information received indicates that this is probably cartel related with massive amounts of munitions used to include automatic weapons, .50 caliber weapons and hand grenades,” Dannels said. “Reports of the death toll range from 8-13 people, none of whom are listed as U.S. citizens.”...more