TEXAS: Federal agents are investigating a claim that a cartel member kidnapped a Border Patrol agent in the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas.
Several phone calls to La Joya Police Department threatened violence against a dispatcher and alleged the cartel had kidnapped an agent.
All on-duty Border Patrol agents are accounted for, U.S. Customs & Border Protection officials said in a statement released.
Investigators are still trying to determine who made the call and are going through “an abundance of caution” until the caller could be identified, CBP officials added.
The Spanish-speaking man initially called to report undocumented people being transported through La Joya, but the conversation quickly escalated into a threat against the 911 dispatcher, La Joya Police Chief Geovani Hernandez told.
A Border Patrol agent chases an undocumented immigrant through dense underbrush on Sept. 9, 2014 near Falfurrias, Texas.
The caller, who had a local Texas phone number, Hernandez added, also identified himself as a cartel member.
The ninth and final call to 911 made allegations that his cartel was holding a border agent for ransom.
It’s not known if the federal agency has accounted for each of its off-duty agents.
The agency has about 3,100 agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector which borders Mexico.
