Occupants Of Helo Processed At Laredo, TX, Sent Back Home

The latest in a number of border violations by the Mexican military was reported Saturday afternoon, when a helicopter carrying an unspecified number of occupants landed at Laredo International Airport in Texas. Mucia Dovalina, the uniform public affairs officer for the Laredo Port of Entry, told the Houston Chronicle the landing was made about 1500 local time.

Nuevo Laredo Airport

Officials have not said whether the occupants were armed. Dovalina says US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers processed the occupants and allowed them to return to Mexico in the aircraft.

CBP says the pilot mistook the Laredo, Texas International Airport, which has three runways, for a single landing strip in Nuevo Laredo, apparently missing the Rio Grande as it was crossed, a pretty significant error in pilotage.

The Mexican military has been increasing troop deployments in northeastern Mexico in its war on drug cartels, and such "inadvertent errors" have been increasing. The Chronicle reports the Mexican military announced last week that it has wrapped up an operation called “Lince Norte,” or "Northern Lynx," a 20-day assault on the Zetas drug cartel involving 4,000 troops, deployed mostly in states bordering Texas.

FMI: www.cbp.gov