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Drug smugglers disguised as Mexican soldiers arrested

by Michael Webster: Investigative Reporter April 16, 2008 2:30 PM PDT

Juarez Mexican Federal police have arrested two drug smugglers who strained Mexico's relations with the United States by allegedly disguising themselves as Mexican soldiers and confronting Texas law enforcement officers.

The Mexican government said, in January 2006 that the two disguised themselves as Mexican soldiers and crossed the Rio Grande River in Hudspeth County, Texas from Mexico.

Oscar Alonso Candelaria Escajeda and Ivan Gandara Trejo, were detained in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, according to a news release from the federal public security secretary.

Hudspeth County sheriff reported spotting three vehicles, including at least one a military-style Humvee, and tried to halt them near Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of El Paso, on suspicion they were loaded with drugs.

The smugglers escaped back across the border without a shot fired, abandoning more than a half-ton of marijuana as they fled.

U.S. authorities initially believed the men were Mexican soldiers and the incident strained relations between the two nations before U.S. officials said they accepted Mexican assurances that the smugglers were only disguised as soldiers.

An official from Mexico's Attorney General's Office said the two are believed to be members of the Juarez drug cartel. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

Candelaria Escajeda also faces drug smuggling and possession charges filed in West Texas in December 2006, the news release said.

More violence to Americans in Mexico in Los Cabos Mexico gunmen held up a family of U.S. tourists in Mexico on and made off with their small plane, police said.

The robbers attacked the plane as the American couple and their two daughters, ages 6 and 8, were about to take off from a hotel airstrip in the Baja California beach town of Mulege.

Detective Juan Carlos de Jesus Jimenez said the thieves pulled a car in front of the six-seat Cessna Stationair, knocked out one of its windows and forced the tourists out at gunpoint. They then set fire to the car and flew off in the plane.

U.S. officials said they had heard reports about the incident but had not yet been in contact with the victims. The plane's identification number matched a craft registered to a company in Boise, Idaho.

Small aircraft are commonly used by Mexican drug cartels to smuggle narcotics.