Sources: Gunmen didn't cross river
McALLEN — A firefight Thursday near Ciudad Miguel Aleman — across the Rio Grande from Roma — placed U.S. authorities on high alert, and gunmen tried to swim to the U.S. side before spotting authorities waiting there and turning back.
The Mexican military clashed with gunmen about 3:30 p.m. in the town of Guardados de Abajo, a Mexican law enforcement official confirmed. The firefight lasted more than an hour.
Apparently a group of gunmen trying to elude capture by the military started to swim across the Rio Grande toward the U.S. near the community of Escobares. But U.S. authorities had deployed personnel to the border, and the men swam back to Mexico.
U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Dan Miliam said they received unconfirmed reports of a possible situation in Starr County. “Assets were deployed to investigate and at this time there is no indication of illegal activity in that area.”
Guardados de Abajo, the area where the firefight started in Mexico, is a regular staging area for drug smugglers and recently was hit several times by the Mexican military, which seized multiple tons of marijuana each time, a Mexican source outside law enforcement said.
About the same time as the reported, attempted crossing, Starr County sheriff’s deputies were involved in an unrelated chase in which the tires of a fleeing vehicle were apparently shot out by a pursuing deputy, a U.S. law enforcement official confirmed.
Starr County Sheriff Rene Fuentes did not return calls for comment.
