Gunfight Flares at U.S.-Mexico Border

An armed gang apparently working for drug traffickers battled with Mexican customs agents near the U.S. border, killing a Mexican official and wounding at least one American, after the agents stopped a truck smuggling $123,000 in cash, officials said Monday.

The firefight Sunday evening--just 50 yards from the U.S. Customs station at Nogales, Ariz.--highlighted the increasing threat that drug-trafficking violence poses to the U.S. border area. The case also appeared to provide further evidence that traffickers are sending their cash back to Mexico in bulk, to avoid money-laundering controls on the U.S. side.

The clash began about 6 p.m. Sunday. A customs agent in Nogales, Mexico, pulled over a pickup truck that had just arrived from the U.S. side, said a statement from Mexico’s tax department, which oversees customs.

The customs agent asked the driver about a big box in the truck, and the driver declared it to be a wedding present, the statement said. When the agent asked the man to open it, the driver offered him a $20 bribe. But the agent said no. The driver then handed the box to a passenger, who jumped out of the truck and fled, the statement said.

But the “present” proved too heavy for the man to carry. He dropped the box, which burst open, spilling U.S. bills everywhere, the statement said. Customs agents brought the driver into their office, where they proceeded to count the bills--$123,100 in all, the statement said.

“While the customs personnel were counting the money, between five and nine men with handguns and rifles suddenly turned up, determined to rescue both the dollars and the detained man,” the statement said. “Without a word, they opened fire on the customs agents.”

One agent--identified as Jose Luis Lopez Toledo, 31--was killed and another wounded, it said. At that point, the customs agents returned fire, joined by Mexican municipal and national police.

The battle could be seen from the U.S. Customs station, said Joe Lafata, deputy port director in Nogales, Ariz. “You can imagine the pandemonium of people running and shooting down there,” he said. “We needed to get the private citizens out of the way and our officers under cover.”

U.S. Customs quickly shooed 40 waiting vehicles through the booths and into the United States, then shut the border crossing, he said.

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By the time the gunfight ended, two of the assailants were wounded and taken prisoner, the statement said. The others escaped, including the truck driver. Their nationalities were not revealed.

“It seems that this was a drug-trafficking operation,” said Roberto Rodriguez, the Mexican consul in Nogales, Ariz.

The government statement said two Americans were wounded in the firefight. They had been in line at Mexican customs, waiting to cross into the United States, when the clash occurred, the statement said. They suffered minor injuries and were treated at a hospital in Nogales, Ariz., it said, providing no details.

But officials in Nogales, Ariz., said only one American was treated at the city’s Holy Cross hospital. Jose Luis Alday, the local police chief, said the victim was a resident of Nogales, Guillermo Castallanos.

The border crossing was closed for three hours after the attack.