U.S. Helicopter Fired at from Mexico Side of Border

WASHINGTON – A U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing Saturday in Texas after being fired at from the Mexican side of the border, police said.

The spokesman for the police force in Laredo, Texas, Joe Baeza, conveyed the findings of the preliminary investigation to reporters, although he did not say if the gunfire struck the chopper.

CBP sources, meanwhile, said the helicopter landed in Laredo and no one was injured, although they also did not indicate whether or not it was hit by the gunfire.

The chopper was flying over a known drug- and people-smuggling route where gunfire is often heard, though rarely is it directed at border agents or their vehicles, Baeza said.