Murder at the Border. (Insider Report).

On February 26th, the body of 23-year-old U.S. Border Patrol agent Jorge Luis Salomon Martinez was found near Bacocahi, Sonora, Mexico -- about 40 miles south of Arizona. The young Mexican-American agent was apparently beaten to death by four assailants, who chose a 50-pound rock as the murder weapon. Mexican officials took two suspects into custody. A Sonoran state police official told the Tucson Citizen that Agent Martinez was killed after the suspects "learned he was a Border Patrol agent...."

According to an account provided by Mexican prosecutor Saul Ballesteros, Martinez picked up the two suspects while they were hitch-hiking near the town of Agua Prieta. (Agent Martinez, who was off-duty at the time, may have been visiting his father in Naco.) Martinez and his two passengers joined two others at a nearby river, where they shared a few beers and engaged in some idle conversation that quickly turned deadly.

Prior to arriving at the river, suspect Jesus Villa Villareal told Martinez that he made a living bringing "drugs and money into the United States," reported the March 5th Citizen. Martinez' curiosity was piqued, and he asked Villareal where he brought the contraband into our country. At this point, suspect Francisco Rosas Molina allegedly snapped at Villareal, "Don't give him any information; he's Border Patrol" -- a fact Martinez had thoughtlessly disclosed earlier.

Shortly thereafter, while Martinez was conversing with Edna Montoya Medina (a young lady who had joined the group at the river), Villareal allegedly snuck up behind the agent and attacked him. Molina and another suspect, Jose Arturo Arreola Lopez, joined in, beating Martinez and pelting him with rocks. One of the four then picked up the 50-pound rock and crushed Agent Martinez's skull.

Agent Martinez manned the front line in guarding our borders, carrying out a vital role in defending our nation from terrorism. He was murdered, with the connivance of at least one narco-trafficker, specifically because he was a Border Patrol agent. While the FBI has offered to assist Mexican authorities in investigating the murder, the crime has attracted little attention in the press. There has also been no official notice from the Bush administration, which remains as committed to demolishing our border with Mexico as it is to enforcing UN resolutions against Iraq.