DPS choppers help put the dog in the fight against smugglers

McALLEN —A Texas Department of Public Safety pilot and his tactical flight officer spotted what they believed was a group of nearly a dozen smugglers standing next to a stolen vehicle on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.

From 600 feet above the ground, they could see the young men and women through the helicopter’s high-tech camera standing idly next to a black SUV.

“I bet it’s probably stolen,” DPS Aircraft Section Tactical Officer Mike Avila said, referring to the luxurious vehicle, which stuck out like a sore thumb in the brush-filled sand. “It doesn’t seem like it belongs here.”

The DPS chopper circled above the group for a few minutes before the suspected smugglers decided to relocate and drive away.

“Yeah, it’s probably stolen” the pilot, Lt. John Prince II, replied as he watched the SUV skid and veer on the rough terrain as it sped off. “You wouldn’t treat your vehicle like that.”

Seconds later, Avila caught a glimpse of the same black SUV rolling over on its side. One by one, the occupants could be seen climbing out of the vehicle through a window — no one was injured.

Less than two minutes later, another vehicle carrying about a dozen more people arrived. The mob then organized itself on one side of the SUV and together they pushed it right side up before leaving the area together.

“Organized crime?” the pilot asked rhetorically. “You bet.”

The cooperation shown by the subjects during a routine surveillance flight of the Rio Grande earlier this month is seen on a daily basis and not just across the border, Prince said.

An intricate network of drug lords, smugglers and scouts work each day in Hidalgo County to get another load of drugs and undocumented immigrants across the river, and as of three years ago, it is the DPS Aircraft Section’s duty to counterattack their efforts.

GOVERNOR’S MANDATE

“We were police and sheriff-oriented support. Historically, that’s what we were mandated to do — that’s what we were funded to do,” DPS Pilot and Capt. Stacy Holland said. “But then we expanded three years ago about 150 percent with machines and people because we were charged by the governor’s office to assist the U.S. Border Patrol.”

The increase in funding more than doubled the number of air crew members from 27 to 63 and allowed for the purchase of five state-of-the-art helicopters, valued at nearly $4 million each, he said.

“The unique thing about our helicopters, versus say U.S. Customs and Border Protection or Border Patrol, is that they are designed by the pilots based on their needs,” the captain said. “A lot of thought and years of experience were put into these things to design them the way they are.”

The helicopters are equipped with mission-oriented technology, including cameras with infrared imaging, a complex bank of police radios, satellite cell phones and an audio panel that ties them all together, Holland said.

 “When we did that, we were able to get on the cartel’s smuggling routes that for years had gone undetected,” he said. “We know their routes now. We know their corridors. We know their times. We’ve learned, so now we engage them more because we’re better at targeting them.

1. Three years ago, (smuggling) was way, way more out in the open and overt than it is now. You have to hunt them now.”  

Holland credits much of their success to the Tactical Flight Officer Program that was initiated two years ago after officials realized the technology in the aircraft surpassed the pilot’s ability to fly the chopper and effectively operate it, he said.

As a solution, an officer was assigned to every station to fly with the pilot and serve as their eyes. One officer is assigned to each border station and as a result, they have become experts in their operating areas for finding smuggling trends, Holland said.  

‘NO-SURRENDOR MENTALITY’

Prince, who has been with DPS for nearly 35 years, and Holland, a 14-year veteran, recalled the days when smugglers would simply pull over to the side of the road when a unit’s light went off — all pilots have to be DPS troopers for at least four years before they can apply for the Aircraft Section — but those days are long gone, they said.

Smugglers have become much more aggressive in their endeavors as law enforcement agencies continue to put pressure on. Every time a load is seized, cartels lose an average of $500,000, Holland said.

“When Johnny and I came by they used to just pull over and get arrested, but not today,” Holland said. “Today there’s a no-surrender mentality. It’s you’ll run through a fence, you’ll run through the pasture, you’ll run through spikes, you’ll run through the cops and you’ll run through a locked gate at Anzalduas park because there is no getting out.

You will recover the inventory back to Mexico because that is ultimately what drives them. It’s all about the dollar and getting that load across.”

Smugglers have developed new tactics to buy time so that if caught, they can get their loads to Mexico before they are seized. Those tactics include keeping a close eye on law enforcement agencies and hangars, throwing caltrops to puncture the tires of pursuing vehicles, forming recovery teams that are posted along both sides of the Rio Grande and “splashdowns” —  a term used to describe the driving of a narcotic-laden vehicle into the river. 

The recklessness that comes with these new tactics has proven to be fatal. Last week, a La Joya teenager was sentenced to seven years in prison after he drove a vehicle filled with 300 pounds of pot into the river, drowning his passenger, who couldn’t get out of the car. A Harlingen woman also was killed last week after the vehicle she was in was struck by a truck driven by a suspected drug smuggler being watched by police.

“A lot of people don’t really understand,” Holland said. “They talk about spillover and smuggling or whatever, but one thing you have to keep in mind is that sometimes they may not be shooting it up in the streets in McAllen like they do in Nuevo (Laredo) or Reynosa, but you have a lot of crimes that are a result of this.”

Smugglers also have pointed assault rifles and thrown rocks at helicopters using sling shots from the “mike” side — the term used by law enforcement for Mexico. But air crew members also can engage, or use force, when the suspects’ conduct turns deadly, Prince said. Snipers can shoot at tires when smugglers drive into oncoming traffic, deploy caltrops or place the public in danger, he said.

LOCAL TRAFFIC

Three pilots, one lieutenant and a tactical flight officer are assigned to the McAllen Station, which is considered the busiest when it comes to border enforcement in Texas, Prince said.

DPS air crew members use one helicopter to respond to an average of 15 pursuits per week, Prince said. It’s difficult to figure out how many suspects are arrested and the amount of narcotics seized in the area because records are kept per helicopter, but the choppers are not always kept in the same place, Prince said. Border offices often switch the aircrafts to ensure they all wear out evenly, while others are sent in for minor repairs, he added.

The chopper that has been in place at the McAllen office for the past five months has flown nearly 500 hours, assisted agencies about 357 times and has helped seize nearly 16,000 pounds of pot during that time, Prince said.   

“They run dope 24 hours a day,” he said. “It may be 3 o’clock in the morning; it may be noon.”

DPS aviation patrols the Rio Grande at times smugglers are most active, including during dusk and peak hours for traffic in the morning and afternoon, officials said.

The most trafficked areas lie west of McAllen from Peñitas to La Joya, where there is a gap in the border wall, Prince said.

Officials do not expect their work to decrease anytime soon and will ask for funding to purchase another helicopter in two years, when the next legislative session begins, Holland said.

“Everybody asks us ‘How are you guys so successful? I mean you’ve got one machine and four guys. Other agencies have 10 helicopters on the ramp and 20 pilots,’” he said. “But it’s not the dog in the fight. It’s the fight in the dog.”

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Naxiely Lopez covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4434.