By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office investigators are closely monitoring a series of recent reports by immigrants that they were robbed as they crossed the Rio Grande into the United States.
While bandidos along the storied river are nothing new, their latest iteration is a small group of young Mexican ruffians using machetes to threaten and rob immigrants crossing the river as they attempt to enter the United States.
VVSO Chief Deputy Waylon Bullard said Friday the sheriff’s office criminal investigations division has compiled three recent reports of immigrant robberies.
Bullard said the first immigrant to report a robbery spoke to a Border Patrol agent after crossing the Rio Grande on the morning of April 22. The immigrant encountered the Border Patrol agent on the Star Ranch on the Texas side of the river downstream from the Del Rio International Bridge.
Bullard said the first victim, a woman from Colombia, reported the robbers had taken U.S. currency, pesos and diapers and bottles in a bag.
The second report came on May 8, again in the morning hours, Bullard said. This time, the victims were a 40-year-old woman, a 38-year-old woman and a six-year-old boy.
This incident was witnessed by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper stationed on the river, and that trooper reported the women, who are from Nicaragua, said the robber had taken all the currency they were carrying.
Bullard said the third report was made to a Border Patrol agent at 7:53 a.m. on May 10.
The victims were three men, ages 26, 26 and 25, and two women, ages 24 and 26. All of the victims are from Colombia.
The Colombians said robbers accosted them on an island in the middle of the Rio Grande. They told the Border Patrol agent the robbers took two backpacks containing all their clothing, U.S. currency, an Apple iPhone 7, a Motorola 5 phone and their passports.
Bullard said the victims reported the robbers used machetes to threaten them. He said the robbers appear to be a group of at least four young men.
“This is still a developing situation, and we are continuing to monitor it very closely. At this point there isn’t really much we can do, since the crimes occurred in Mexico,” Bullard said.
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