Otay Mountain the Focus of New Border Patrol Enforcement Operation

SAN DIEGO - U.S. Border Patrol, San Diego Sector announced Thursday its refocusing priority enforcement efforts to Otay Mountain to target cross-border criminal smuggling organizations.

“Multiple smuggling organizations are responsible for threatening our Nation’s security through persistent human smuggling on Otay Mountain,” Chief Patrol Agent Richard A. Barlow said in a news release. “We will flex our enforcement posture toward these exploited areas to weaken and ultimately eliminate these criminal enterprises.”

In addition to the threat presented by the smuggling organizations, Otay Mountain has historically been well known for bandit activity, kidnappings, extortion, and rapes committed upon migrants by perpetrators in Mexico.

“Throughout the course of this operation, anyone apprehended in the focus enforcement areas will be subject to the maximum punitive consequence according to Federal law,” Barlow said.

The operation also will be supported by the Mexican Federal Police (Policía Federal), to leverage prosecutorial and enforcement efforts on both sides of the border.

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