WILLIAMS OUT
WEDNESDAYMARCH 28, 2018
FREE
COWBOYS WIDEOUT BREAKS FOOT, A10
DELIVERED EVERY SATURDAY
TO 4,000 HOMES
A HEARST PUBLICATION
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
SOUTH TEXAS
Howland named food bank president His tenure will conclude in March 2020 S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S
Doug Howland was introduced last week as the new president of the South Texas Food Bank board of directors. Howland has been part of the board since 2013 and has served on different committees and vari-
ous capacities, most recently serving as president-elect. “I am honored and humbled to be the new Board President of The South Texas Food Bank, an organization with the very humane and compassionate mission of feeding the hungry in Laredo and
South Texas,” Howland said in a news release. “I want to extend my gratitude to the current board members for their support, as well as to my predecessor, Erasmo Villarreal. We feel very fortunate to continue to have one of the founding members of the food bank as
part of the Board,” he added. Howland is a life-long resident of the City of Laredo and has been active in civic organizations for over 35 years. He graduated from Texas A&M in 1973 with a degree in civil engineering Howland continues on A11
Courtesy photo
Doug Howland, president of the South Texas Food Bank, poses with past president Erasmo Villarreal.
NUEVO LAREDO
AHEC
2 girls, woman killed in crossfire
CANCER PREVENTION MONTH PROCLAMATION
A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s navy said Monday that a helicopter called in to support marines after they were ambushed in Nuevo Laredo didn’t kill the bystanders who died. The navy did not say how many civilians died during clashes, but local media reported Monday that a mother and two children were killed. The navy said in a statement that the bystanders were hit from the ground — not the air — and their wounds were caused by a type of bullet not used by the helicopter crew. The operations in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, left a marine and four suspected gunmen dead and 12 marines wounded. The Tamaulipas state government did not respond to requests for information on the civilians killed. It only said that it “expressed its unqualified support for the Navy in its security operations in the state” and sent condolences “to the victims” in the shootouts. Gun battles late Saturday and early Sunday illustrate the level of drug gang violence in Nuevo Laredo, a city dominated by the Northeast Cartel, an offshoot of the Zetas cartel. Authorities said marines were ambushed three separate times. Marines returned fire and killed one gunman in the first attack, but suffered three Ambush continues on A11
Courtesy photo
Zapata County Judge Rathmell and commissioners join AHEC staff as they proclaim February Cancer Prevention Month in Zapata. See related story on A3.
FEDERAL COURT
15 sentenced in drug trafficking scheme By Joana Santillana ZAPATA TIME S
Over a dozen low- and highranking members of a sophisticated, worldwide drug and
money laundering organization have been sentenced in a Laredo federal court. A three-year investigation into the conspiracy, dubbed Operation Tres Equis, showed
the operation was family affair, with siblings, parents and extended family members taking part in the scheme. The operation is a long-term, worldwide investigation spear-
headed by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The Laredo Police Department, Webb and Zapata County sheriff’s offices, U.S. Border Patrol and Court continues on A11
CONGRESS
Representatives to deliver over $100M for cattle health S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S
Representatives Henry Cuellar, Filemon Vela and Vicente Gonzalez announced recently that they helped secure $96.5 million in the fiscal year 2018 Omnibus Appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Cattle Health Program, and $5 million specifically for research and scientific tools to eradicate cattle
fever tick, as well as language encouraging the program and the Agricultural Research Service to collaborate with their Mexican counterparts to develop and implement a fever tick control program, so that infected livestock in Mexico does not cross the border and infect Texas livestock. The U.S. cattle industry is valued at roughly $81 billion. Cattle fever ticks carry micro-
scopic parasites that cause anemia, fever, enlargement of the spleen and liver, and often death for up to 90 percent of infected cattle. Along the Rio Grande, there is a Permanent Cattle Fever Tick Quarantine Zone, an area that spans eight Texas counties on the border and over a half million acres stretching from the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville to Amistad Dam north of Del Rio, intended to
prevent the spread of the often deadly tick-borne disease. Infestations have been reported elsewhere in Central and South Texas as well. “I would like to thank my fellow appropriators, Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt and Ranking Member Sanford Bishop for their leadership and assistance on this issue, along with fellow South Texas con-
gressmen Filemon Vela and Vicente Gonzalez,” Cuellar added. “I also want to thank the Texas Farm Bureau, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, and the South Texans’ Property Rights Association, for their consistent efforts to help highlight and battle this issue at the local, state, and federal level for our Texas ranchers and cattle producers.” Cattle continues on A11