Deming is conveniently located north of the border south of the Gila National Forest on the way to the Chiruhuacas. Prime badlands for badasses.
EL PASO -- Drug smugglers have apparently set "booby traps" for U.S. Border Patrol agents on roads along the border near Deming, agency officials said Monday.
The devices consist of barbed wire stretched like clotheslines across trails used by agents on all-terrain vehicles. The lines, which are difficult to spot, are about four feet off the ground and appear to be intended to knock a rider off the ATV.
There have been no known injuries.
It isn't the first time such a tactic has been used by smugglers in the desolate desert south of Deming and west of El Paso.
Two years ago, a rancher informed the Border Patrol of two wires found stretched along a dirt road in a similar fashion. At that time, officials said it appeared the lines were targeting agents who frequently patrolled on ATVs.
Officials said the added danger will not stop them from going after smugglers.
During the weekend, agents using an infrared camera arrested six people carrying 320 pounds of marijuana as they walked from the border toward Interstate 10 near Deming, officials said.
The New Mexico border remains busy.
U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, along with Rep. Harry Teague, all of New Mexico, on Monday asked the Department of Homeland Security to increase the number of Border Patrol agents in the area and set up a Forward Operating Base in the New Mexico bootheel. Agents in the area are currently based in Lordsburg.
