Border Checks Made for Kidnaped Agent
U.S. Customs and immigration agents along the Mexican border from San Ysidro to Texas on Friday were inspecting the passenger compartments and trunks of every vehicle coming into the United States in search of a kidnaped U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agent who, authorities believe, may be brought across the border by his abductors.
The exhaustive search of vehicles delayed traffic at the San Ysidro border crossing in Tijuana nearly three hours Friday night, compared to the normal wait of between 45 minutes and one hour.
There were shorter delays at the new border crossing on Otay Mesa, according to Richard R. Wilhelm, operations supervisor for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service at San Ysidro.
Jerry Martin, assistant district Customs director in San Diego, said his agents, as well as inspectors with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, were acting at the request of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Received Flyers
“We got a call just past 2 p.m. from our headquarters office, advising us to cooperate with the drug enforcement agents in the exam of all vehicles and aircraft coming into the United States from Mexico to look for the kidnaped agent,” Martin said. “We were given flyers with the man’s picture.”
The missing agent, Enrique S. Camarena, an 11-year DEA veteran, was believed abducted Feb. 7 by drug traffickers in Guadalajara, Mexico.
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