U.S. Officials Press Mexico for Marine’s Release

Eleven days after a Marine sergeant was jailed in Baja California, Mexico, for weapons violations after inadvertently driving across the border while on duty, a group of U.S. congressmen demanded his immediate release Wednesday.

Sgt. Brian Johnston, 23, assigned to a transportation battalion at Camp Pendleton, had been sent by his superiors to the San Ysidro border crossing to pick up two Marines and mistakenly got into a traffic lane that took him into Mexico, said Navy spokesman Lt. Sean Banks.

Quizzed by Mexican law enforcement agents, Johnston, who does not speak Spanish, indicated that he had two disassembled weapons, a rifle and a gun, in a toolbox in the back of his truck, Banks said. The weapons were owned by Johnston, not the military.

Mexican law prohibits bringing firearms into the country. Johnston had not planned to go into Mexico but to pick up the pair of Marines on the U.S. side, Banks said.

Attempts by Navy and Marine Corps lawyers to secure Johnston’s release have been unsuccessful. After being held in a Tijuana jail, Johnston was transferred to a Mexican state prison on the outskirts of the city, where he is visited twice daily by Navy Shore Patrol officers.

“He is being treated well, not mistreated at all,” Banks said.

Although a smuggling charge has been dropped, Johnston still faces a charge of weapons possession, punishable by a prison sentence of up to 12 years.

Three San Diego-area Republican congressmen--Duncan Hunter, Brian Bilbray and Ron Packard--sent a letter of complaint Monday to Jesus Reyes-Heroles, Mexican ambassador to the United States, calling the jailing of Johnston unwarranted and demanding his release.

On Wednesday, after receiving no reply, Hunter and Bilbray took their case to an event hosted in Washington by U.S. drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey and attended by Mexican Atty. Gen. Jorge Madrozo and Mexican Foreign Secretary Rosario Green.

“For him [Johnston] to be arrested and held for possession charges is unconscionable,” said Bilbray, who noted that Johnston was in uniform and on duty when arrested.

Johnston, a North Carolina native who had never been to Mexico, was assigned to go to the border and pick up two Marines who had been detained by the Navy Shore Patrol. The patrol, under an agreement with the Mexican government, combs the streets of Tijuana for U.S. service personnel who are drunk or potentially troublesome.

Hunter has suggested that until the release of Johnston, who is being held without bail, the U.S. military put Baja off-limits to its personnel, which could put economic pressure on Mexican authorities. So far, that suggestion has not been heeded.

“This is a very serious matter to the Navy and Marine Corps,” Banks said of Johnston’s incarceration. “We’re going at it very cautiously.”

A spokesman for the Mexican Embassy said late Wednesday that the case is in the hands of a judge and cannot be dropped. The judge in the case indicated this week that no hearing is scheduled until after New Year’s.

“This is now within the judiciary, and it is up to the judge who must decide,” said spokesman Jose Antonio Zabalgoitia. “We in this country feel very strongly about the importation of weapons into our country. We have placed very visible signs telling of the penalties of bringing guns into Mexico. We’ve done as much as we can but still the cases occur. In this case, we expect the judge will take into consideration circumstances in favor of the individual.”

The move to free Johnston picked up support Wednesday from Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and three members of the House Border Caucus, who sent a joint letter to Madrozo.

“The unfairness of this situation is reflected in the dozens of times . . . where Mexican law enforcement and military personnel carrying automatic weapons have been stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol on the U.S. side of the border,” said a letter signed by Gilman and Democratic Congressmen Ciro Rodriguez and Solomon P. Ortiz, both of Texas, and Ed Pastor of Arizona.

“Respect and courtesy have been our standards each time your military personnel have inadvertently entered the U.S.,” the letter added. “Please help us to continue this tradition of friendship.”

In a tearful interview with the ABC-TV affiliate in San Diego, KGTV, Johnston’s wife, Crystal, said Wednesday, “I know he wouldn’t knowingly do this. . . . I love him, I miss him.

“My kids are babies,” said the mother of two sons age 3 months and 3 years. “They might not see their dad until they’re teenagers.”

Through his jailers, Johnston sent a written message to his family: “Looks like I’ll be staying past Christmas. First chance I get, I’m coming home.”