The U.S. Marshals Service on Wednesday handed over $10,000 worth of new police equipment to Mexican police.
The marshals in Arizona obtained the equipment — which included bulletproof vests, boots, handcuffs, uniforms, flashlights, gear bags and gloves — through a U.S. State Department grant program that sets aside money to help agencies that work along the border, said Luis Noriega, the Mexico investigative liaison for the U.S. Marshals Service in Arizona.
The recipients of the donation, the Sonoran investigative police (known in Mexico as Policia Estatal Investigadora, or PEI) and Mexico's Immigration Institute (known in Mexico as Instituto Nacional de Migración, or INM), work closely with the Marshals to find fugitives in Mexico.
The grant application came in part due to the escalating drug-cartel fueled violence that Mexican police are battling but also due to their cooperation over the years, Noriega said.
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"This is our way to say thank you," Noriega said.
The donation was delivered Wednesday at the Evo A. DeConcini Courthouse in Tucson.
The equipment will allow officers, especially those making checks on buses and trains, to work more efficiently, said Alejandro Salas Dominguez, an official with Mexico's Immigration Institute in Sonora.
"They are of excellent quality," Salas said in Spanish.
Both immigration and the Sonoran investigative police will give the equipment to officers working close to the U.S-Mexico border. For the investigative police, that means the officers investigating the drug-cartel- related killings will be the beneficiary, said Manuel Angel Barrios Macario, the director of the Sonoran investigative police.
"It is a really big help," Barrios said in Spanish.
