WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- A stepped-up border offensive has begun in Texas, where U.S. agents seized firearm parts, gunpowder and drug proceeds from trucks trying to enter Mexico.
The Obama administration said it would deploy more federal law enforcement agents to the U.S.-Mexico border to thwart southbound shipments of weapons and drug money that officials say fund Mexican cartels' violent resistance to Mexican President Felipe Calderon, the Houston Chronicle reported.
A U.S. official working on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's plan, scheduled to be unveiled Thursday, told the Chronicle that additional security personnel would be sent to the border, including up to 90 officers from Customs and Border Enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the auspices of the Justice Department, is sending as many as 37 additional officers to bump up teams targeting cartel gun-running operations, an ATF spokesman said.
The newspaper said the recent seizures of weaponry and money at various locations in Texas are part of Napolitano's plan to stem escalating Mexican gangland violence that could threaten Calderon's leadership and possibly spill into U.S. border states.
