Border Agent Shooting: Two Held In Mexico

Mexican troops have arrested two suspects over the shooting dead of a US border patrol agent in Arizona.

Nicholas Ivie and two colleagues were responding to a ground sensor that had been tripped in an area used by drug smugglers and human traffickers about five miles from the Mexican border, near the city of Bisbee, when he was killed.

One other agent was wounded and taken to hospital, but was released after undergoing surgery. The third agent was unharmed.

The two suspects were detained during a military operation in Agua Prieta, in Mexico's northern Sonora state, a Mexican army officer told Reuters. 

A Mexican police official in Naco, across the border from the Arizona town of the same name, confirmed the arrests, which occurred in the early hours of Wednesday.

Authorities have not said what they believe prompted the shooting or whether they think the agents were ambushed. They suspect that more than one person fired on the agents.

Dave Stoddard, a retired Border Patrol agent who worked at the agency's station in the area for eight years, said the route was used more by drug smugglers than illegal immigrants.

"You're talking about cocaine alley," he said.

The desert where the shooting occurred is dotted with creosote and other brushes that hamper visibility at ground level. Gullies and ridges also provide cover for smugglers.

Agent Ivie, a 30-year-old father of two, was the fourth border official to be killed in Arizona in the last two years.