Police find cyclist with cache of pieces of US border wall
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Police in Juarez, Mexico, report finding a man on a bicycle with a cache of a dozen pieces or more of U.S. border wall.
Chihuahua state police on Wednesday approached the cyclist in a sparsely populated area of Juarez across the border from Santa Teresa, New Mexico, where smugglers in the past have cut holes hundreds of times on mesh fencing at the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to the state police, the man had accumulated several pieces of the steel mesh in the brush along the Mexican highway leading to the Santa Teresa, New Mexico, port of entry.
The mesh had been previously pre-cut with metal saws or welding equipment and left in place – a common tactic by smugglers who later return with a truckload of migrants, pull the mesh to let them through and put it back in place.
The cyclist allegedly told police he was out collecting cans near the border to sell them to a recycler and just happened to "find" the mesh lying around. He denied cutting it.
Police said he did not carry any cutting tools so he could not be charged with vandalism, and he did not have a vehicle to transport the metal, hence he couldn't be charged with stealing.
“The materials were retrieved and returned to American authorities,” the Chihuahua police said in a statement. “These actions reflect the good communication and cooperation in place with the United States government.”
The incident was reported during a “mirror” patrol of the border, with U.S. Border Patrol agents driving on a dirt road north of the wall and the Chihuahua police following from the Mexican side.