An Arizona rancher goes on trial Friday in the fatal shooting of a migrant on his property near Mexico as the national debate over border security heats up ahead of this year's presidential election. George Alan Kelly, 75, has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of a man he encountered on his property outside Nogales, Arizona. The trial in Santa Cruz County Superior Court is expected to last up to a month. Kelly had earlier rejected a plea deal that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty. He was arrested and charged last year in ..read more

Customs and Border Protection officers at the Nogales Port of Entry seized 400,000 fentanyl pills and 152 pounds of meth over the weekend of September 17, according to Port Director Michael Humphries.The drug totals were an accumulation of five separate seizures. Of the 400,000 fentanyl pills, 30,000 were the 'rainbow' variety. Authorities have warned an increasing prevalence of rainbow fentanyl could be used to target younger children. Humphries shared that the drugs were hidden in various parts of multiple vehicles, including the back wall of a truck cab, in the sides of vehicles and in vari ..read more

Human rights advocates are calling for a congressional hearing on what they call an "off the books" investigative unit in the U.S. Border Patrol.ABC15 started investigating the unit named Critical Incident Team (CIT) this summer after a use of force incident in Nogales, Arizona where Marisol Garcia, a woman from Mexico was allegedly shot in the head by a Border Patrol agent.The name of the unit was revealed in a Nogales police report from Garcia’s incident.The police report was first obtained by the ABC15 Investigators.During the investigation, a spokesperson for Nogales, P.D. told ABC15 that ..read more

Santa Cruz County prosecutors say they won’t file any charges against a driver accused of fatally hitting a Nogales police officer five months ago. Authorities say Jeremy Brinton was hit and killed by a car on Interstate 19 near Mariposa in May. County Attorney George Silva told Tucson TV station KGUN9 that prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to proceed with criminal charges. Silva says there was no evidence of drug or alcohol impairment or evidence to suggest the driver was distracted by use of a mobile device. Brinton served 18 years with the Nogales Police Department and is survived by ..read more

Authorities say a pursuit along I-19 near a Border Patrol checkpoint ended in a shootout in the parking lot of a Walmart in Nogales Monday afternoon.According to a report from the Nogales International, details from Nogales Police that state the suspect was killed while trying to get away in a semi tractor trailer. The report goes on to say, police used spike stripes trying to keep the driver from fleeing the scene.Department of Public Safety troopers say it started as a shootout at the checkpoint the continued south on I-19. It ended in gunfire in the parking lot minutes later. Nogales Police ..read more

A Nogales Police Officer has died after being struck by a vehicle on Interstate 19 Thursday evening.Nogales Police and the Arizona Department of Public Safety say, at around 8:15 p.m. the police officer was working an off-duty job conducting traffic control on I-19. While outside of his car, he was hit by another vehicle.DPS says the driver of the vehicle that hit the officer remained on scene. It is unknown at this time if impairment was a factor.The officer was airlifted to Banner University Medical Center Trauma Center with serious injuries, where he later died, according to NPD. The office ..read more

Former Nogales Mayor Marco Lopez has announced that he is running in the 2022 election for Arizona's governor. Lopez made the announcement Tuesday morning on social media, saying, "I’m running for governor to give everyone a fair shot."According to his campaign website, Lopez is "building a people-powered movement to flip this state blue and restore the promise of Arizona." After graduating from the University of Arizona, Lopez was elected mayor of Nogales in 2001 at age 22. He was appointed as Director of the Arizona Department of Commerce in 2008 and then served as Chief of Staff for U.S. Cu ..read more

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent was stabbed multiple times during an incident with suspected undocumented immigrants near Nogales Monday night.According to a post on Twitter shared by the department, an on-foot agent attempted to make arrests within a group of people around 7 p.m. when one person stabbed the agent multiple times.The agent reportedly shot and killed the attacker before being taken to the hospital. Officials say the agent has since been released from the hospital. No further information has been released, but the incident is still under investigation ..read more

NOGALES, Ariz. -- Towns on the border of the United States and Mexico face a double-edged sword. International trade continues, with only small impacts from COVID-19. But these border towns are feeling a strain from the lack of visitors.“We thought 30 days, then we thought 60 days, then we thought 90 days,” Bruce Bracker said, reflecting on the past five months since a national emergency was declared over COVID-19.The town of Nogales, hugging the Mexico-Arizona border, historically sees plenty of visitors.“It was bustling to the point where if we needed to walk from one building to the other ..read more

Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino has sent a letter to Governor Doug Ducey, asking that he be authorized to require residents in his city to wear masks in public in an effort to fight the spread of coronavirus. "We applaud your efforts to encourage people to follow the CDC guidelines, but we see that in our community, the message is simply not getting through," Mayor Garino said in the Monday letter. Read the full letter below.Mayor Garino said the rate of coronavirus spreading in the Nogales community is concerning, and he's hoping to be able to enact a mandate for residents to be required to wear ..read more