HSI Shooting in Mexico

[Big Sexy]

Earlier this afternoon, two U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents assigned to the ICE Attaché office in Mexico City were shot in the line of duty while driving between Mexico City and Monterey, Mexico, by unknown assailants. ICE is working with the U.S. State Department, Mexican authorities and other U.S. law enforcement partners to investigate the shooting.

No word on the agents conditions.

[Big Sexy]

Getting word one has died. This has NOT been released for public consumption, yet.

[Nole795]

Oh man, sorry to hear that. Keep us in the loop BS.

[Kimble]

And this shortly after Mexico denied to the UN the existence of armed conflict within it's borders: México niega en la ONU la existencia de un conflicto armado en su territorio. RIP to the ICE agents and what a disgraceful showing by the Mexican gov't.

[Reapp]

Mexico would make a lovely parking lot, if we could just find a way to put the innocents somewhere safe.

[Big Sexy]

Source: Zetas likely behind fatal attack on ICE agents in Mexico
Comments 7
February 15, 2011 5:53 PM
Jared Taylor
The Monitor

McALLEN — Investigators believe Zetas gunmen fatally shot a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent and wounded a fellow agent riding with him Tuesday in San Luis Potosi state.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano confirmed the ICE agent's death and said the other was shot in the arm and leg.

The agent killed was Jaime Zapata, a Brownsville resident assigned to the ICE office in Laredo, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The other agent injured was Jaime Avila.

"U.S. law enforcement agencies are working closely with Mexican authorities who are investigating the shooting to ensure the perpetrators of this unconscionable crime are captured as quickly as possible," Napolitano said.

The two agents were driving in the northern state of San Luis Potosi when they apparently were chased along Highway 57, the main route that eventually leads to Monterrey, and came upon a cartel checkpoint, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation but was not authorized to speak publicly on the case told The Monitor.

After they stopped, an agent inside the armored Chevrolet Suburban rolled down his window and displayed his U.S. identification. The suspected Zeta gunman then took an assault rifle and fired several shots into the driver's abdomen. The passenger was hit in the arm and leg.

The agent behind the wheel was later pronounced dead.

One of the ICE agents is based in Laredo and has family in Brownsville.

San Luis Potosi police told The Associated Press that gunmen attacked two people a blue Suburban on Highway 57 between Mexico City and Monterrey, near the town of Santa Maria Del Rio, at about 2:30 p.m.

Police told the AP one person was killed and another was flown to a Mexico City hospital, though they couldn't confirm the victims were the ICE agents.

Unlike the Mexican highways across Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and other parts of Northern Mexico, the road where the agents were traveling, Highway 57 near San Luis Potosi, was not restricted for U.S. government employees to use, a source unauthorized to speak of the situation told The Monitor.

The ICE agents were assigned to the agency's attaché office in Mexico City, according to an agency statement. However, they were temporary assignees to the installation, one source said.

While officials said the agents were traveling between Mexico City and Monterrey, their specific destination remains unclear.

Napolitano said the attack was against "all those who serve our nation and put their lives at risk for our safety."

"The full resources of our Department are at the disposal of our Mexican partners in this investigation. We remain committed in our broader support for Mexico’s efforts to combat violence within its borders," Napolitano said.

Impromptu blockades set up by drug traffickers and their henchmen are regularly set up in areas they are fighting to control, either to block law enforcement or to disrupt their enemies.

"I ask that you join me in praying for our fallen and wounded colleagues," Napolitano said. "Please keep them, and all our DHS personnel serving abroad or in harm’s way, in your thoughts.”

In a statement, ICE Director John Morton described the situation as "a difficult time for ICE and especially for the families and loved ones of our agents."

"Our hearts and prayers go out to them," Morton said. "This tragedy is a stark reminder of the risks confronted and the sacrifices made by our men and women every day."

[marinepilot]

Sending prayers to the family of the agent killed, and to the family and agent who was shot and survived.

[deputywave]

Thoughts and prayers sent.

[Piggy]

United States Department of Homeland Security - Immigration and Customs Enforcement - Homeland Security Investigations
U.S. Government
End of Watch: Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Biographical Info
Age: Not available
Tour of Duty: 8 years
Badge Number: Not available

Incident Details
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Incident Location: Overseas
Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect Info: At large

Special Agent Jaime Zapata was shot and killed outside of Mexico City, Mexico.

He and another agent assigned to United States Embassy and were traveling between Mexico City and Monterrey when they were forced off the road by 10 members of a Mexican drug cartel. The agents were in an armored vehicle with diplomatic plates and identified themselves as diplomats.

The cartel members opened fire on them, fatally wounding Agent Zapata and wounding the second agent.

Special Agent Zapata had served with ICE for four years and had previously served with the United States Border Patrol for four years.

[Piggy]

Thanks for moving that Kimble, for some reason it didn't come up during the search.

[MikeG]

I hope that's U.S. investigators saying it's Zetas and doing the investigation. It is not unheard of for the Army to actually set up shakedown checkpoints and kill those that don't play nice. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if this was one of those and the Mexican army personnel panicked when they realized they were trying to shakedown U.S. LEOs.

Are 1811's armed when they are on assignment like this?

[Kimble]

Are 1811's armed when they are on assignment like this?

Depends. The foreign nation has control over whether US agents are armed or not through a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). If the SOFA says they can't have firearms off military installations or other areas deemed "US soil" then agents don't have weapons on them in areas under control by the foreign country they are in.

[Switchback]

It often depends if they are TDY or PCS. In several of our foreign field offices, the permanent personnel are armed and those on TDY are not.

[Big Sexy]

Details of deadly assault on ICE agents emerge
MEXICO CITY — In his final moments, colleagues said, U.S. federal agent Jaime Zapata struggled to fight off his Mexican killers as they attempted to yank him from the armored embassy Suburban he was driving.

Zapata and Victor Avila, a fellow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, had been forced off the road Tuesday afternoon by two carloads of gunmen as they traveled the busy toll expressway connecting Mexico's heartland to the South Texas border. They hoped to reason with the gunmen - as many as 15 of them in fatigues - who surrounded the vehicle, U.S. officials said. Zapata died trying. He was shot three times.

"The agent said, you know, 'We're Americans, we're diplomats,' and the response from the drug cartels was bullets," said U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, who heads a subcommittee of the House Committee on Homeland Security and was briefed Wednesday on the incident by senior officials in Washington.

"They put an AK-47, as I understand it, into the crack in the window and just began to fire away," McCaul recounted. Details of the assault also were provided to the Houston Chronicle by current and former federal agents who reviewed official reports. The attack on U.S. law enforcement officers in the line of duty, in north central San Luis Potosi state some 500 miles south of the border at Laredo, is the first of its kind in Mexico in 26 years.

Avila took two bullets to his leg in the attack. Flown to Houston for treatment, he was released from Ben Taub hospital Wednesday.

'He was wonderful'

A native of Brownsville, Zapata had joined ICE in 2003 and usually worked out of the agency's Laredo office. He's survived by his family in Brownsville. The 32-year-old graduated from University of Texas-Brownsville with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and started his law enforcement career with the U.S. Border Patrol in Yuma, Ariz. "He was wonderful," said Cleveland Joyner, whose daughter, Stayce Joyner, had been dating Zapata for more than three years. "I loved the guy."

The agents were driving a sport-utility vehicle with diplomatic plates, leading to strong speculation they were targeted because they were U.S. law enforcement officers, though such a move by the gunmen would be bold and reckless, provoking the full wrath of the U.S. government. "I think all hell is going to break loose," predicted one federal agent not authorized to talk on the record. Mexican authorities are leading the investigation.

According to agents' and officials' accounts in the U.S., Zapata and Avila had stopped for lunch and were just back on the Pan American Highway when the gunmen's cars pulled alongside them before speeding ahead. A few miles farther on, the gunmen lay in ambush, their cars bracketing the agents' vehicle in front and behind, forcing it onto the grassy median. When Zapata shifted the vehicle into park, its doors automatically unlocked. Gangsters pulled open the driver's side door and tried to drag Zapata out.

He fought them off, managing to re-lock the doors. The agents then apparently cracked the front passenger window to talk with the assailants and identify themselves. The gangsters fired through the opening, hitting both agents.

U.S. response

Dying, Zapata put the car in gear and sped off by pushing the assailants' SUV out of the way before collapsing at the wheel. The vehicle coasted to a stop in the median. The agents had used a mobile phone to call for help, and a Mexican federal police helicopter arrived soon afterward. The gunmen fled. "They told the bad guys, 'Diplomats, diplomats,' " said one former federal agent who also reviewed the file on the incident. "Apparently the bad guys, in Spanish, told them they don't give a (expletive)." No one doubts the U.S. response to Zapata's death will be fierce. It also has the potential to drive a wedge into the delicate alliance that has been forged by both governments to defeat Mexico's powerful criminal syndicates, many say. "Clearly the U.S. government gives a great deal of importance to the protection of its agents," said Jorge Chabat, a national security expert in Mexico City. "In this sense it's going to provoke a crisis in the relationship."

Zapata's killers have yet to be identified. But many believe they are a local cell of the Zetas, the assassins-turned-drug-traffickers based in the cities bordering South Texas whose sway extends across much of Mexico. The Zetas recently have been fighting rivals and federal security forces in once-tranquil San Luis Potosi state. Gangland battles killed at least 120 people last year in the area. Dozens more have died since early January, in clashes that include two with Mexican soldiers on the very highway where the agents were assaulted.

'Hunted down at all costs'

Whether aimed at U.S. officials or not, the gunmen's attack may be something they'll regret, former U.S. officials say. "Any drug trafficker with any sense of intelligence would not commit such a heinous crime as this, knowing full well that there is going to be consequences," said Mike Vigil, the retired international operations director for the Drug Enforcement Administration."They will be hunted down at all costs," said Vigil, who spent years working against Mexico's criminal cartels. "All of the law enforcement agencies come together in a common effort. They will be brought to justice, no doubt about it."

Washington Correspondent Stewart M. Powell contributed to this report.

[GoDirectly2Jail]

Such a response SHOULD be swift and fierce, but I sadly do not believe it will be so based on the past
inaction of the current administration.

This is one time where I hope and pray to God that I get to eat my words.