BROWNSVILLE — The U.S. Department of Defense said it was investigating the second sighting within three weeks of a Mexican military helicopter flying in U.S. airspace over rural Zapata County.
“The incident did occur and it's still under investigation,” department spokeswoman Maj. Tanya Bradsher said, confirming that the copter, believed to belong to the Mexican navy, was seen Sunday.
Rick Pauza, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman, earlier in March confirmed a Mexican military helicopter hovered as long as 20 minutes on March 9 over a residential area near Falcon Lake, a reservoir on the Rio Grande.
He said CBP officials who lived in the neighborhood were among those who saw it.
On Thursday, he said he was not aware that Sunday's reported sighting had been confirmed.
“In general, in situations where there is an actual incursion those situations are reviewed by both the United States and Mexico. They are taken seriously,” Pauza said.
Jason Darling, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman in Laredo, said Border Patrol agents responded to the scene of “a report originating from the community” within a half-hour of receiving it Sunday but did not see the helicopter themselves.
He said the copter was reported near U.S. 83 between Zapata and Laredo.
Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said Sunday's sighting was the second one confirmed, but several others were reported to him during the past two weeks that he couldn't be sure enough about to forward to the federal government.
“I don't want to get him involved because it sounds like they're going to fire him for saying the truth,” Gonzalez said of the officer.
But Gonzalez said he didn't pass along those reports to federal officials because he wasn't sure about them.
He said federal officials initially rebuffed his initial reports of the March 9 and Sunday sightings, which he made to the Joint Operations Intelligence Center because he had photos from witnesses and a pretty good idea that they were Mexican military operations.
When Gonzalez told the officials he had photos, however, they blamed their lack of knowledge of it on faulty radar, he said.
Then other federal officials confirmed the incidents to reporters.