SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Smugglers are deploying a new weapon against Border Patrol agents in San Diego: “improvised tire deflation devices.”
“They’re bent nails welded together and two-by-fours with nails punctured through them,” said Justin Castrejon, spokesman for the Border Patrol.
Castrejon said the devices have been used by smugglers on at least 20 different occasions in recent months, particularly in Otay Mesa, in an area just north of Tijuana International Airport.
“They are essentially homemade spikes that these transnational criminal organizations are making,” he said. “What agents are reporting to us, is that as human smuggling events are taking place, smugglers from the south side in Mexico are actively throwing these out hoping to damage our vehicles and not allowing us to pursue them.”
Castrejon said the spikes and the spike-strips are also meant to harm agents.
“We see this as an uptick in violence against law enforcement,” he said. We’ve had in the past ‘rockings,’ rocks thrown at us, but what agents are telling us now, is what they’re hearing from the smugglers, instead of yelling the words ‘run,’ to migrants, they’re now yelling the words ‘fight.’ Fortunately, none of the agents have been hurt so far.”
“We see this as an uptick in violence against law enforcement.”
Border Patrol Agent Justin Castrejon, spokesman for the San Diego Sector
Castrejon tells Border Report they notice who is doing it and are notifying law enforcement south of the border as the incidents take place.
“This area is heavily patrolled, it is under surveillance, we do have our technology in the area we are working to identify folks that are doing these things and put an end to it.”
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