Heavily-armed Texas gunboats now patrol Rio Grande

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://www.khou.com/home/Heavily-armed-Texas-gunboats-patrol-Rio-Grande-160760375.html

by Doug Miller / KHOU 11 News

khou.com

Posted on June 28, 2012 at 6:26 PM

Updated Thursday, Jun 28 at 6:40 PM

SOUTH TEXAS -- Ask Kyle McCarty where he worked just a few months ago and he’ll tell you about patrolling the roads around Odessa as a state trooper.

"Yes, sir," says McCarty, an affable young man with a Texas twang just two years into his career with the Department of Public Safety. "Just regular road crew, black and white."

Today, he’s patrolling a place utterly unlike the highways of the Texas Panhandle, piloting an armored gunboat bristling with automatic weapons around the Rio Grande, watching out for drug runners.　

Call him one of the new cops on the border beat, zipping around the water in a shallow water boat that looks more like a military vehicle driving the streets of Baghdad. Surrounding him is a crew of fellow troopers who usually wear flak jackets as they man large-caliber machine guns that can fire up to 900 rounds a minute.

"Typically, the boats operating in the Rio Grande River are operating with six M-240, 30-caliber automatic machine guns," explains Lt. Charley Goble, the DPS officer in command of the newly deployed force of gunboats on the Rio Grande.

Texas now has a small navy of gunboats patrolling the Rio Grande and the Intercoastal Waterway.　 Right now, the DPS has four of the 34-foot shallow water vessels, but the fleet will soon grow to six.　 Each of the boats, equipped with armor-plating, night vision equipment and a small arsenal of weaponry, costs about $580,000 in state and federal funds.

Troopers patrolling the border say the expense is justified, considering the ruthless nature of their adversaries in the Mexican drug cartels. What they fear, more than anything else, is the prospect of an ambush.

"They’ve got radios, they’ve got their telephones, there’s somebody right here in this abandoned house right here," Goble says, gesturing to people hanging around on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. "There’s somebody there now. They’re watching what we’re doing."　

They’re watching, troopers explain, mainly because they’re providing real-time intelligence to smugglers who dump bales of drugs into the river and let the current carry them to the U.S. shoreline. Smugglers typically steal trucks in south Texas, load them up with drugs on the river and drive inland.　

If they’re caught close to the border, many of the smugglers make a run back to the river, speeding down the dusty roads and crashing their trucks into the water. Then they climb out of their vehicles and quickly unload their contraband cargo, helped by confederates splashing into the river from the Mexican side. They haul their bales of dope back onto the dry land in Mexico, ready to try again another day.

"They fear Texas law enforcement, but not as much as they fear going back and saying they’ve lost their load," Goble says. "Everything’s at stake. They will go to any extreme to get away from law enforcement and to get the contraband back to the owner."

The desperate flights back to the river happen so often, troopers have nicknamed them "splashdowns." Law enforcement authorities have recorded more than 60 of these escapes in the last three years. Troopers point out rusting hulks of abandoned trucks on the U.S. shore where fleeing smugglers have abandoned their stolen vehicles.

So the cat and mouse game on the border continues. Troopers now watch for smugglers from their heavily armed gunboats. And smugglers position spotters to watch for the gunboats.

"They’re in constant communication," Goble says. "If they see us operating in a particular location on the river, they’ll just push it 10 miles either end of us. They’ve got their techniques down to a science, almost. They can move a load of dope across the river in just a matter of minutes. And they can have it completed prior to us even arriving."

Edited July 12, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Some Mekong River action.

[X Factor 1,112]

It's strange - why wasn't this done earlier than now!

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

It's strange - why wasn't this done earlier than now!

Better question is why is the Texas Highway Patrol having to do a job the Feds should be doing? The Feds have obviously dropped the ball in that regard.

The Texas Highway Patrol needs a half dozen of these babies to go along with those gunboats.

[Captain Oates 911]

The men at my last gun club wanted to machine gun Mexicans swimming the river

I said "what about the kids"

they said "Kill them too"

They subscribe to the urban myth that anyone who is not a USC has no rights and can be beaten, raped, enslaved or killed quite legally

I know - its a Republican thing

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

The men at my last gun club wanted to machine gun Mexicans swimming the river

I said "what about the kids"

they said "Kill them too"

They subscribe to the urban myth that anyone who is not a USC has no rights and can be beaten, raped, enslaved or killed quite legally

I know - its a Republican thing

If you enter the United States of America, then make sure you do it in the legal and proper manner. They know the rules. The gun boats aren't about the illegals, they are about drug running. The crime in Mexico is starting to affect the border towns in Texas and Arizona. Nothing wrong with protecting our borders.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

The men at my last gun club wanted to machine gun Mexicans swimming the river

I said "what about the kids"

they said "Kill them too"

They subscribe to the urban myth that anyone who is not a USC has no rights and can be beaten, raped, enslaved or killed quite legally

I know - its a Republican thing

It's a human thing. We're animals by nature. We like to hunt and feed on the weak and those that are not like us.

[Captain Oates 911]

It's a human thing. We're animals by nature. We like to hunt and feed on the weak and those that are not like us.

Difference is that being animalistic is seen as tough and hard and butch and a good thing in the USA

You only have to watch a Dodge Ram advert to see the mind-set

Anyone who wouldn't machine gun a child swimming the river is an effete European with pink frilly pants and needs to get out and leave the land to real americans

That is the attitude

Heck its like its a foreign country from England !

[JohnR! 5,495]

It's strange - why wasn't this done earlier than now!

I will bet you bottom dollar this is an election year!!!

[Harsh_77 718]

The men at my last gun club wanted to machine gun Mexicans swimming the river

I said "what about the kids"

they said "Kill them too"

They subscribe to the urban myth that anyone who is not a USC has no rights and can be beaten, raped, enslaved or killed quite legally

I know - its a Republican thing

That is the reason borders are established. Its not if you are USC or not there are rules and regulation and I guess you think you can violate the rules and regulation.

You would be ok if a USC is hacked by these drug cartels.

[X Factor 1,112]

[Harsh_77 718]

I will bet you bottom dollar this is an election year!!!

It can be, but this lake has seen increase in drug traffic, this lake was becoming a major route for drug smuggling.

As usual Feds were not doing enough to protect the border and state had to step up to protect its border.

I think this was the same lake where a USC was shot and killed by drug cartel just coz he was out on the lake with his wife.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Difference is that being animalistic is seen as tough and hard and butch and a good thing in the USA

You only have to watch a Dodge Ram advert to see the mind-set

Anyone who wouldn't machine gun a child swimming the river is an effete European with pink frilly pants and needs to get out and leave the land to real americans

That is the attitude

Heck its like its a foreign country from England !

It's ignorant to think that it's only an American thing. It is a human thing.

Social engineering might control the herd for the most part ( which is necessary ) but people left to their own devices will do as they will.

To think a few of your fellow Brits wouldn't act the same way/have the same thought process is ignorant of our species as a whole.

[Captain Oates 911]

It can be, but this lake has seen increase in drug traffic, this lake was becoming a major route for drug smuggling.

As usual Feds were not doing enough to protect the border and state had to step up to protect its border.

I think this was the same lake where a USC was shot and killed by drug cartel just coz he was out on the lake with his wife.

That's what she said - she was fishier than the cargo hold of a Grimsby trawler and it didn't add up

Anyway, these gunboats cant open fire unless they are fired upon so its GOVERNMENT SPENDING !!!

aaarggghhhhh !! stop ! privatize it ! pay them on ears recovered

[X Factor 1,112]

I will bet you bottom dollar this is an election year!!!

I concur - the timing is very suspect.