Last month, Mexican federal officers arrested Marine Corps Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi for weapons possession. Tahmorressi, meanwhile, says he took a wrong turn across the southern border. Tahmooressi was originally held in Tijuana’s La Mesa Penitentiary, where he was placed in general population and his life was threatened. He was then moved to solitary confinement and shackled to a bed for nearly 30 days. Last week, Tahmorressi was moved to a maximum-security prison about 40 miles outside of Tijuana. He faces a sentence of six to 21 years in a Mexican prison for carrying his registered AR-15 rifle, .45-caliber pistol, and 12-gauge pump shotgun in his car across the border.
In an interview with TheBlaze’s senior Washington correspondent Sara Carter, the 25-year-old decorated war veteran’s mother, Jill Tahmooressi, said her son was undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder after enduring numerous tours of duty and surviving several IED blasts when the arrest occurred. He had been in San Diego for 10 days when he took the wrong turn at the San Ysidro checkpoint.
Tahmorressi had all his possessions in his vehicle because he was in the process of moving to San Diego for treatment. He declared his weapons, but Mexican federal agents confiscated them at the border as they took him into custody.
Friday morning, TheBlaze received and released the last ditch 911 call placed by Tahmooressi just minutes before he was arrested. The fear in Tahmooressi’s voice is obvious as he tells the 911 operator, “The problem is I crossed the border by accident and I have three guns in my truck and they’re trying to take my guns from me.” The 911 operator replies, “There’s nothing I can help you with sir. I do apologize.”
Listen to the call below:
On radio this morning, Glenn reacted to the desperate phone call and condemned the lack of mainstream media attention surrounding Tahmorressi’s arrest. As Glenn has been talking about for a number of years, the treatment of veterans in the United States is simply unacceptable. This case is particularly egregious when you consider the Fast and Furious gun running scheme and the droves of Mexicans who enter this country illegally each day.
“Who is covering this story? I know TheBlaze and Blaze Radio is covering it. Is anybody in the mainstream covering,” Glenn asked. “He's a decorated war veteran… He was going treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. He has served numerous tours of duty. He survived several IED blasts, and… he takes a wrong turn. He's on the highway, and all of a sudden, before he knows it, he's in Mexico. Believe it or not, it is fairly easy to believe that this is what has happened… I know TheBlaze has really been deep into this, and they do believe that this is merely an accident.”
As Stu explained, there is a remarkable double standard when you consider Mexican government seemed perfectly fine with the Fast and Furious gun running operation to country.
“In case you're keeping score at home, you are not allowed to cross the border with a few guns in the back of your truck. You are, however, allowed to ship tons of guns and run them down to Mexico – the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.”
Conservative radio host Mike Broomhead, the afternoon drive host at News Talk 550KFYI in Phoenix, Arizona, has a deep understanding of U.S. border crossings, and he explained the frustrating hypocrisy of this case.
“In the rural areas, you could pass through and there are signs. But how many times have you been on the freeway and missed the exit because you missed the sign,” Mike asked. “To add to the irony, a few days ago, we had a Mesa, [Arizona] police officer… killed in a wrong-way freeway accident. He was hit driving home from work by someone who was three times the legal limit of alcohol, been in the country illegally for a few years, and had a felony conviction.”
“It just seems odd to me that you cross the border in Mexico, you're facing 21 years for bringing a gun into the country,” he continued. “And we have people in our country and there's no enforcement.”