EXCLUSIVE TO THE SPOTLIGHT
By Mike Blair
November 27, 2000

Like something out of a spy novel, more skirmishes have erupted on the
U.S. -Mexican border-this time involving federal law enforecement and
North Korean elite troops and Russian mercenaries.

Elite North Korean commandos and mercenaries, who may be working jointly
with Mexican drug cartels, were involved in a recent shooting incident
with Border Patrol agents along the southern California border with
Mexico, according to SPOTLIGHT sources.

On Oct. 24, border agents in the vicinity of the Otay Mesa border
crossing southeast of San Diego were attacked without provocation by
Mexican soldiers, who were accompanied by what the U.S. agents perceived
to be Chinese-speaking troops and blond-haired caucasians in military
garb. Two of the foreigners apparently took up sniping positions against
the American law enforcement officers.
A border agent said several Mexican nationals attempting to cross the
border indicated that they encountered "Chinese soldiers" dressed in
fatigues.
"Two of three of them were close enough {to what they perceived to be
Chinese soldiers} and said they heard men speaking what they described
as Chinese," the border agent said. "{The Mexicans} were scared and said
they had seen the men before including some white men driving
military-type vehicles."
GETS STRANGER
"There's been strange things going on," the border agent added. "Even
homeowners have been calling about automatic weapons fire in the canyons
near Otay Mesa. I know my friends with the San Diego Police Department
also hear about it. There's something going on and most of us feel like
we are not being told everything."
A retired Air Force Special Operations Command officer, who specializes
in high-tech radar and communications electronics and spent considerable
time along the U.S. border with Mexico and in South Korea, told The
SPOTLIGHT that the Asian soldiers most likely were not Chinese but
members of the elite North Korean Commando Rangers.
Viewed by most military experts as among the very best elite troops in
the world, the Commando Rangers have been responsible for making
numerous incursions into South Korea on sabotage and spying missions, he
said.
The North Koreans are deeply involved in the international drug trade,
particularly in Europe where they are operating out of their country's
embassies, to raise hard currency to help fund the economically
hard-pressed communist regime in Pyongyang, the former Air Force officer
said.
"Obviously, the North Korean Commando Rangers, who have a long history
of being in Mexican territory anyway, could be protecting the Mexican
drug cartel's operations in smuggling drugs across the U.S. border."
said the retired officer, who served in conjunction with the top secret
National Security Agency (NSA) .
"After all, the big money in the international drug trade come from
smuggling drugs into the U.S.
"I would also hazard the guess that the blond-haired soldiers seen in
the vicinity were Russian mercenaries, probably former members of Soviet
Spetsnaz units within the former Red Army," he added.
According to the Border Patrol, the foreign soldiers that agents
encountered near Otay Mesa did not understand Spanish.
It has been reported as far back as the 1980's that North Korean spy
ships operated in the Gulf of California, between Baja Peninsula and the
Mexican mainland and as far north as withing 50 miles of the U.S.
border, the retired intelligence officer pointed out.
The SPOTLIGHT reported about these incursions into North American waters
by the North Korean spy ships in an exclusive article in the Aug. 20,
1994, issue. Other articles appeared in The Arizona Republic at about
the same time.
SPY SHIPS IN BAJA
According to that SPOTLIGHT exclusive, the North Koreans were "sending
spy ships deep into the Gulf of California, to a point only about 50
miles from the U.S. Mexican border, where they have been monitoring U.S.
Air Force activity in California and Arizona and supplying terrorists
training at secret camps in Northern Mexico."
In that issue, The SPOTLIGHT also reported:
.North Koreans supplied guns and other military equipment to the Red
regime that was ousted by U.S. forces last October {1983} from the small
island-nation of Grenada in the Eastern Carribean, as well as placing
intelligence agents and military technicians within that country.
.For two years North Korean spy ships have had practically a free rein
in operating throughout the vital Gulf of California, which extends for
several hundred miles north and south between the Baja Peninsula and the
north-western coast of Mainland Mexico.
.One of the vessels identified as Clomax 71, was seized by the Mexican
Navy off the coast of Puerto Oenasco (Rocky Point), about 50 miles from
the U.S. border, last Jan. 31 {1983}. The 300 foot-foot long vessel was
sprouting numerous radio and radar eavesdropping antennas. It was
operating in the gulf under North Korean registry but flying the Mexican
flag. Aboard the vessel was a crew of 28 North Koreans and seven
Mexicans, who were found to have false passports...Sources indicated
that the Clomax 71 as well as several other North Korean ships that have
been operating in the Gulf, were monitoring the U.S. Air Force traffic
in the southwestern U.S., particularly in southern California and
Arizona.
.North Korean ships are believed to be supplying several terrorist
training camps in the region. The camps are located in the mountains of
the Baja California Norte, the northern half of the Baja Peninsula,
which directly borders the U.S. and in mountains north and east of
Culican in central Mexico.
.According to the sources, some of the North Koreans aboard the ship
were believed to be "soldiers or commandos" who were involved in
training of revolutionaries and terrorist at the secret camps.
The 1984 SPOTLIGHT article revealed the "possibility.....that camps are
training terrorist to infiltrate the United States among the tens of
thousands of illegal aliens who cross into the U.S. every year."