Mexico: U.S. agents chasing suspects allegedly cross border, face off with local law

Saturday, November 11th 2006, 7:36 am

By: News On 6

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) _ U.S. Border Patrol agents chasing suspected drug traffickers on the Texas border allegedly crossed into Mexico and had a brief standoff with Mexican police before peacefully returning, Mexican authorities said Friday.

Jose Luis Delgado, a police officer in Guadalupe, about 25 miles southeast El Paso, Texas _ said he and two colleagues encountered some U.S. Border Patrol agents on Mexican territory.

He said the Mexican police responded Thursday with guns drawn to a report that a marijuana-laden pickup truck had been abandoned in the Rio Grande.

``When we arrived (the U.S. officials) drew their weapons,'' Delgado said.

Delgado said he identified himself as a police officer and that the American agents returned to their side of the border without further problems.

Border Patrol spokesman Rogelio Garcia confirmed that U.S. agents seized about 300 pounds of marijuana from the truck but couldn't say whether the vehicle was on the Mexican side of the border because the matter was ``still being investigated.''

Rene Medrano, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office, said state investigators seized 1,445 pounds of marijuana from the pickup.

Medrano said he couldn't corroborate the alleged incursion because ``when state officials arrived, U.S. Border Patrol agents were on the U.S. side.'' The matter was under investigation, he said.