CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 6, 2011 | By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times
The morning commute from their oceanside homes in Tijuana had become routine for friends Sergio Luna and Kevin Romero. The Californians, who had moved to Mexico to save money, liked to beat the congestion at the border crossing by arriving before 3 a.m. But Monday morning they never made it to their jobs in San Diego. As they sat in their Mazda pickup truck in the line of traffic, a gunman tapped on the window and fatally shot both men with a 9-millimeter weapon, according to Baja California authorities.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
November 21, 2009 | By Richard Marosi
A Mexican teenager pleaded guilty Friday to fatally shooting a U.S. Border Patrol agent last summer while attempting to rob him of government property in a remote area east of San Diego. Christian Daniel Castro-Alvarez, 17, and an unspecified number of co-conspirators crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and lured Agent Robert W. Rosas Jr. out of his vehicle while he was on routine patrol, according to the plea agreement filed in federal court in San Diego. Rosas, 30, was shot multiple times by Castro-Alvarez and one or more co-conspirators.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
November 3, 2009 | Associated Press
Customs officials say they seized 343 pounds of sea cucumbers at the San Ysidro port of entry as smugglers tried to bring the Asian culinary delicacy into the U.S. from Mexico. Inspectors found undeclared sea cucumbers in a minivan in San Diego on Sunday afternoon. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Jackie Dizdul said the animals were hidden in the luggage of two Chinese citizens, a 51-year-old man and his 24-year-old son. Sea cucumbers are eaten in soups in Asia, where they are harvested from the ocean bottom and dried.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
September 23, 2009 | Richard Marosi
The nation's busiest border crossing was closed and declared a crime scene Tuesday after at least two U.S. agents attempted to stop smugglers from speeding through the San Ysidro Port of Entry by firing their weapons at three vans loaded with suspected illegal immigrants. Port Director Oscar Preciado said it was the first time officials had shuttered the 24-lane border crossing to vehicular traffic since President Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Three people in the vans suffered injuries and a person in a nearby car also was wounded in the unusually brazen smuggling attempt, U.S. authorities said.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
November 25, 2008 | Richard Winton
A Mexican national who is wanted in a slaying here was arrested at San Ysidro Port of Entry, authorities said Monday. Gregorio Vidaca Gonzalez, 49, entered the government checkpoint on foot about 9 p.m. Friday, presented a border crossing card and requested a permit to travel into the United States, said Vincent Bond, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement. Agents took Vidaca into custody after a computer check revealed that he was the subject of a no-bail murder warrant out of Norwalk, Bond said.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 1, 2008 | From the Associated Press
Waits at California border crossings were no longer than usual Thursday, the first day of stricter rules for entering the United States. Drivers waited about an hour at 6 a.m. to cross through the San Ysidro port from Tijuana. Pedestrians were delayed about 10 minutes, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "It's been great -- a nonevent," said Gurdit Dhillon, the agency's field operations director in San Diego. Thursday was the first day that U.S. and Canadian citizens 19 years and older had to show documents proving citizenship.