Patrols Border on Danger
Law: Military finds niche in drug war as reports of gunfire, intrusions
surface.
By H.G. REZA, Times Staff Writer

ON THE U.S.MEXICO BORDERThe two young
soldiers, faces camouflaged, armed with M16 assault rifles
and .45caliber pistols, lay in the desert sand 25 miles west of
Yuma, Ariz., peering into Mexico. The darkness of a Southern
California night made conditions perfect for their nightvision
equipment.
The National Guard soldiers from the Los Alamitosbased 40th
Infantry Division were there to observe and listen, part of the
military's silent war on drugs along the border.
"Some nights there's no activity," one said. "We haven't come
close to being in a firefight, but you do feel a rush when you're doing
your job rightlooking at a group of people without them knowing
you're there."
The military had been secretly patrolling the border until gunfire
erupted recently in Texas: Last month, the leader of a Marine team
from Camp Pendleton fatally shot an 18yearold U.S. citizen in
Redford, and in January, an Army Green Beret wounded a
Mexican drug smuggler during a gunfight near Brownsville.
Weeks later, California National Guard officials invited a Times
reporter to spend three days and nights with infantry soldiers along
the border.
Eager to demonstrate that their units operate under strict rules of
engagement, the National Guard for the first time allowed a reporter
to visit a frontline listening and observation post in what has
become an increasingly controversial part of the war on drug
smuggling.
Last week, Congress approved a measure that would authorize
the stationing of as many as 10,000 troops along the U.S.Mexico
border to help stop illegal immigration and combat drug trafficking.
Mexican Ambassador Jesus Silva Herzog said last week in
Anaheim that putting troops along the border "would be complete
nonsense."
On the front lines last week, the two soldiers from Team Wolf at
the desert listening post were aware of the danger and prepared to
defend themselves, even though no shootings have been reported
along the border in California. Hiding beneath a creosote bush, their
weapons were "at the ready" and their bulletproof vests were laced
uncomfortably tight.
The troops involved say they feel the adrenaline, fear and
boredom common in combat.
For hours, the only sound was the eerie wind blowing across the
crackling brush. Occasionally, they would cock their heads in the
direction of Mexico, only 30 yards away. Conversation was limited
to whispers.
About 90 miles to the west, Guard soldiers from Team Shadow,
part of the 40th Division, looked through heatsensitive gun sights
mounted on fourwheeldrive vehicles pointed toward Mexico and
O'Neill Valley, a route favored by smugglers.
Hunkered down on two mountain peaks, the soldiers from Team
Shadow detected dozens of people crossing into the United States
or gathering on the Mexican side of the border.
"This is what we do best. We catch dope," said the Team
Shadow leader, a staff sergeant who asked that his name not be
used to ensure his safety. "But we're fighting guys who have
unlimited funds and resources. They operate seven days a week,
and sooner or later they find a way to bring their loads across."
Security is a big concern for the troops. Soldiers working on a
border fence and road are kept under surveillance by people with
binoculars on the Mexican side, prompting the soldiers to cover
their name tags. In addition, both sides monitor each other's radio
communications.
Also positioned along the border were Marine Force
Reconnaissance teams, and at the south end of the Cleveland
National Forest, Special Forces troops kept a lookout for
suspicious aircraft officials believe are owned by drug smugglers
that enter the United States.
Team Shadow also kept a Mexican Army patrol vehicle that
pulled to a stop a few feet from the California line under special
observation.
In the past nine months, U.S. soldiers and their commanders say
they have spotted other Mexican Army patrols operating as far as
five miles north of the border.
A spokesman for the Mexican government confirmed that his
country's troops have accidentally strayed onto U.S. soil from time
to time. However, military officials said the Mexican soldiers could
not have intruded that far by mistake.
Military officials said that U.S. Army, Marine Corps and
National Guard troops have conducted more than 3,000 missions
along the 1,700mile border in the past seven years. Their impact
on drug traffic is unclear.
Critics have protested the government's decision to use soldiers
to perform a job that traditionally had been left to civilian law
enforcement agencies.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes (DTexas) said he has never supported
these military patrols without the presence of Border Patrol agents.
Reyes, who worked with the military when he was chief of the
Border Patrol in El Paso, said he is especially troubled by the
absence of Border Patrol agents at the soldiers' listening and
observation posts.
"The military trains for combat. The job of patrolling the border
is tough enough when you're a professional, welltrained Border
Patrol agent," Reyes said. "Don't make it tougher by putting people
out there who aren't bilingual or familiar with the culture and
customs of people they observe."
Despite the criticism, Reyes said that the military's contributions
along the border have been "positive and effective" for the most
part.
But Roberto Martinez, director of the American Friends Service
Committee border project in San Diego, an immigrants' rights
group, calls the military presence "warmongering gone amok."
"We're totally opposed to having the military at the border.
Soldiers are trained to kill the enemy and not to interact with
civilians," he said.
U.S. officials say the troops are there only to support the Border
Patrol and are prohibited from detaining suspects or making arrests.
Soldiers are ordered to report suspicious activity to Border Patrol
agents, who are responsible for apprehending suspects.
California National Guard spokesman Capt. Stan Zezotarski
bristled at the charges of militarization: "We and the [Army and
Marines] are here at the request of the Border Patrol, which is the
lead agency. The rules of engagement limit us to counterdrug
missions and to fire only when there is imminent danger to our
troops."
Zezotarski said that National Guard soldiers will not go into an
area without Border Patrol backup.
Still, the military buildup along the border is undeniable.
Camp Morena, a National Guard post near Campo, which had
been kept secret until officials allowed a Times reporter to tour it, is
used as a forward operations base by Green Berets and Marines
for border drug reconaissance missions in San Diego County.
Camp commander Capt. Wade Rowley said that in 1996,
4,200 troops temporarily assigned to border missions used the
small base, which opened Jan. 7, 1993. Rowley is also in charge of
Team Engineers, the National Guard unit assigned to construct a
steel fence and road along the border from the Pacific to a point just
east of Jacumba.
"The camp provides a secure area for [the Special Forces and
Marines] to plan their missions and operate from. They're put in a
corner of the camp and left alone to do their own thing," said
Rowley.
In Imperial County, troops operate out of a separate secret
desert base. Guarded by Marines carrying M16 rifles, the
compound has maps of the area that include locations of Mexican
Army garrisons throughout northern Baja California.
In order to participate in the surveillance missions, soldiers
receive training in cover and concealment, land navigation and in the
use of nightvision equipment. Soldiers are also trained in rappelling
from helicopters into remote areas and, if necessary, carry the
supplies and equipment they need to survive for the duration of a
mission.
The sergeants who are given tactical command of the missions
plan meticulously for the patrolsa process called "setting up the
battlefield."
"We've had some success, and I wish I could tell you, "We're
kicking ass," but we're not," said a federal official familiar with the
military operations in Imperial County. "The problem is
overwhelming."
"Last year, law enforcement seized 5,000 pounds of cocaine [in
Imperial County] based on information provided by our teams. So
far this year, the coke seizures have only amounted to 500 pounds,"
he said.
Federal officials theorize that cocaine seizures are down because
smugglers are flying into the Imperial Desert, "utilizing clandestine
airstrips or airdrop sites," according to an internal memo share with
The Times. In addition, officials believe smugglers' planes thread
their way north, invisible to radar as they maneuver through the
steep canyons of the Cleveland National Forest, to remote landing
fields in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
On the ground, the dangers facing the soldiers are very real.
In the past month, four Border Patrol agents have been shot at
by snipers hiding on the Mexican side. One agent was wounded in
the incidents authorities said were instigated by narcotics traffickers.

In two other previously unpublicized attacks, Rowley said that
unarmed National Guard engineers came under fire from the
Mexican side of the border in May while erecting a steel fence in
Bell Valley, a rugged, isolated area of boulderstrewn mountains
near Campo.
No one was injured, but the engineers were pulled out of the
valley for 15 days following the shootings. They recently returned to
the area, wearing armored vests, but are still prohibited from
carrying weapons.
Such incidents, and the patrols themselves, had remained secret
for the safety of the soldiers, officials said.
"There was no reason to [talk about the patrols]. The units see
the missions as part of their training," said Maureen Bossch,
spokeswoman for Joint Task Force Six, the Army command at Ft.
Bliss, Texas, which coordinates the Army and Marine missions with
the Border Patrol and National Guard.
Since the patrols began on the California side of the border,
soldiers have spotted people walking across the desert, cars driving
into the United States and aircraft flying low through the steep
border canyons of Cleveland National Forest to evade radar.
Officials said they also have spotted Mexican military patrols
crossing into the United States. In September, 1996, U.S. troops
told the Border Patrol of a Mexican Army Humvee at Mt. Signal,
about 350 yards north of the border and minutes from California
98, according to briefing papers and photos that commanders
shared with The Times. Border Patrol agents detained three
Mexican soldiers and seized numerous automatic weapons,
according to the documents.
The Mexican soldiers were eventually released, along with their
equipment. U.S. officials said it is highly unlikely the Mexican patrol
could have been lost, because Mt. Signala rock monolith in the
middle of a flat desertis a wellknown U.S. landmark.
Jose Antonio Zabalgoitia, spokesman for the Mexican Ministry
of Information, confirmed that three Mexican soldiers had been
briefly detained last September and then released. But he said that
the intrusions were honest mistakes by soldiers new to the area and
unfamiliar with the border.
"This is not like Texas, where there is a river that clearly marks
the border," he said. "Both countries have treated these incidents as
honest mistakes, which have been resolved at the local level."
Military documents also show that in March:
* A Mexican Army Humvee was seen about 5 miles inside U.S.
territory, in Davies Valley, west of where California 98 meets
Interstate 8. The vehicle picked up several armed Mexican soldiers,
and returned to Mexico.

* Seven men armed with automatic weapons and dressed
in black fatigues like those worn by Mexican federal judicial
police agents, unknowingly passed within spitting distance of a
camouflaged Special Forces observation post in Tierra del Sol,
west of Jacumba. Trackers followed the group's trail for about 4
1/2 miles into U.S. territory before losing them.
* A Marine observation post reported seeing a helicopter fly
from Mexico to O'Neill Valley, drop two bundles to someone and
return to Mexico.
While the diplomats explain the border intrusions as honest
mistakes, the U.S. soldiers view them as potentially deadly.
"We have confidence in the training that our soldiers have
received and trust them to use good judgement," said Zezotarski.
"The border is a dangerous area. The smugglers are armed. The
militia nuts who are out here, looking for illegal aliens are armed.
The potential for violence is high enough already without having
someone else's army stumbling across the border."

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