TUCSON Arizona ( Shots Fired from Mexican Helicopter over Arizona, U.S. Says )

TUCSON Arizona – Shots were fired from a Mexican government helicopter that strayed into Arizona airspace, the U.S. Border Patrol said on Friday, adding that no one was hurt.

“A Mexican law enforcement helicopter crossed approximately 100 yards north into Arizona nearly 8 miles southwest of the Village of San Miguel,” Customs and Border Protection officials in Tucson said.

“The incident is currently under investigation,” the CBP said.

The incursion occurred at 5:45 a.m. Thursday over the Tohono O’odham Indian reservation.

Two Border Patrol agents were in the vicinity at the time.

More than 5,000 Border Patrol agents are deployed in southern Arizona.

The Mexican helicopter was engaged in a counter-narcotics operation, a Border Patrol spokesman said.

Mexican officials contacted their U.S. counterparts to apologize for the incident, the leader of the Tucson Sector unit of the Border Patrol agents union, Art Del Cueto, said.

But Mexico’s Milenio television cited unnamed defense officials as denying any incursion into U.S. airspace.

While Mexican army and law enforcement helicopters were active near the border as a part of a major anti-drug operation, none of them entered the airspace over Arizona, the sources told the network.

The press office at Mexico’s defense department said it was working to gather information on the episode before issuing any statement