LAREDO, Tex. (KGNS) - The Laredo Police Department is currently responding to a vehicle rollover that occurred at the intersection of Loop 20 and Winfield Parkway in the northbound lanes around 12 p.m. on Thursday, August 3.

According to police, there have been no reports of major injuries resulting from the accident, but authorities are urging caution as traffic begins to back up in the area.

According to initial reports, the incident involved a total of six vehicles. The cause of the accident is yet to be determined, and traffic investigators are on-site to assess the situation.

Officers are managing the flow of traffic near Del Mar Boulevard and the Loop due to the congestion resulting from the accident. Drivers in the area are advised to seek alternate routes if possible until the congestion eases.

LAREDO, Tex. (KGNS) - The Laredo Police Department is seeking the community’s help in locating 37-year-old Hector Lino Reyes who is accused of stealing an SUV.

The search for Reyes began on July 10, 2023, after Laredo Police were dispatched to Advanced Auto Parts on 1819 Guadalupe Street to investigate a report of a stolen SUV. According to the victim, his 2014 Silver Ford Escape was taken from the business premises. The victim explained that he had left the SUV running as he went inside the store due to mechanical issues. When he came out of the store, he found his SUV missing.

Laredo Police Auto Theft investigators reviewed surveillance footage from the scene which captured a man entering the victim’s vehicle and driving away without the owner’s consent. Based on their findings, the investigators were able to identify Hector Lino Reyes as the prime suspect in this theft.

Reyes is being charged with Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle and Theft of Property. Laredo Police urge anyone with information on Reyes’s whereabouts to contact Laredo Crime Stoppers at 727-TIPS or take advantage of the Crime Stoppers P3 app to submit anonymous tips. A cash reward may be available if it leads to Reyes’ arrest.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican authorities said Thursday that a Honduran migrant identified one of the two bodies recovered from the Rio Grande as her son.

But the 20-year-old Honduran man was not the body found near a floating barrier that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had installed in the river, across from Eagle Pass, Texas.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said a body recovered about 3 miles upriver from the buoys was tentatively identified as the Honduran man by his mother, but the body was badly decomposed and fingerprint tests would be needed for confirmation.

The department said the mother, who is at a migrant shelter in Piedras Negras, the Mexican border town across from Eagle Pass, said she recognized the tattoos on the body as her son’s.

It said there was still no word on the identity of the second person whose body was found in the river near the buoys. The department said no identification had been found on the body, and nobody had come forward to report the victim.

The Coahuila state prosecutor’s office is working to positively identify the bodies and determine the cause of death.

The department reported the first body found along the buoys between Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras on Wednesday evening, and immediately connected it to the risks Mexico had warned of before the barrier was installed.

Mexico said the Texas Department of Public Safety had advised its consulate of the body along the floating barrier. But it was unclear if that was the body that ultimately ended up lodged against the buoys by the force of the river.

“Preliminary information suggests this individual drowned upstream from the marine barrier and floated into the buoys,” said Steve McCraw, the DPS director. “There are personnel posted at the marine barrier at all times in case any migrants try to cross.”

Mexico and others have warned about the risks posed by the bright orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys put on the Rio Grande in an effort to make it more difficult for migrants to cross to the U.S. The Foreign Relations Department also contends the barrier violates treaties regarding the use of the river and Mexico’s sovereignty.

“We made clear our concern about the impact on migrants’ safety and human rights that these state policies would have,” the department said in its statement Wednesday night.

Andrew Mahaleris, spokesman for Abbott, said in a statement Thursday that “the Mexican government is flat-out wrong.” He said preliminary information indicates the person drowned before coming near the barriers.

He said the Texas Department of Public Safety previously reported to U.S. immigration agents that there was a body floating upstream from the barriers in the Rio Grande.

Mahaleris said Texas officers monitor the barriers and have not observed anyone attempting to cross since they were installed. “Unfortunately, drownings in the Rio Grande by people attempting to cross illegally are all too common,” he said.

The barrier was installed in July, and stretches roughly the length of three soccer fields. It is designed to make it more difficult for migrants to climb over or swim under the barrier.

The U.S. Justice Department is suing Abbott over the floating barrier. The lawsuit asks a court to force Texas to remove it. The Biden administration says the barrier raises humanitarian and environmental concerns.

The buoys are the latest escalation of Texas’ border security operation that also includes installing razor-wire fencing and arresting migrants on trespassing charges.

Migrant drownings occur regularly on the Rio Grande. Over the Fourth of July weekend, before the buoys were installed, four people, including an infant, drowned in the river near Eagle Pass.

Isabel Turcios, a nun who runs the Casa del Migrante shelter in Piedras Negras, said migrants continue crossing the river there even though authorities put razor wire under the bridge connecting the two countries and the buoy barrier a little farther downstream.

She said they typically cross under the bridge where the river is more shallow and then walk downstream to an opening in the razor wire. She said she didn’t know if people still tried to cross where the buoys were installed downriver.

“Tons of migrants are still arriving,” Turcios said. “Last night some 200 people slept (at the shelter). This morning 50 more have entered the shelter.”

She said many migrants decide to cross because they feel it takes too long for U.S. authorities to process applications to enter the U.S. legally.

She said her shelter was receiving a lot of Venezuelans, in many cases mothers with children, who stop only briefly to bathe, rest and then try to cross the river.

LAREDO, Tx (KGNS) - It was a big night for the Tecolotes as they get just about everything to break right leaving los dos in a dead heat over the final five games.

Tuesday night would kick off a series with Oaxaca in a match up that went back and forth before los dos finally got control.

The road team got the scoring started with runs in the first and second innings, only for the Tecos to take things up and take a brief lead that wouldn’t last long.

It was the Tecolotes though scoring the final four runs of the game for a come from behind seven to four victory thanks to a big night from Cade Gotta with a homer and scoring twice while Henry Gatewood drove in a pair while scoring once himself as well on his sixth long ball of the season.

That win coupled with Laguna, Monterrey and Tijuana all losing Tuesday night has the Tecos sitting in the top spot in the north division.

If you notice in the records, los dos has played fewer games than all those teams as they have had games get rained out and it’s proving to be the slight difference in winning percentage that has the Tecos in first place.

The flip side to that is that with only five games to go this season, los dos still hasn’t clinched a playoff spot with seven teams fighting for six spots.

Wednesday will be the Tecos’ final regular season game in Laredo with the first pitch set for 7:30 p.m.

AUSTIN, TX. (KXAS) - Last week the Justice Department filed paperwork asking a judge to order Texas Governor Greg Abbott to have the floating barrier removed.

On Wednesday, the governor spoke out about the lawsuit.

The paperwork includes a preliminary injunction that would stop the construction of new barriers and remove the ones that are already in place.

The barriers are currently sitting along the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass between Mexico and the U.S.

Governor Abbott spoke about why he believes the State of Texas could win the lawsuit against the DOJ.

“First of all, the statute on which the lawsuit is based does not seem to apply to the buoys that are at issue. But second, even if it does, I believe that the constitutional right of the State of Texas to secure our border and to defend our sovereignty supersedes any statute,” said Abbott.

The governor went on to say the State of Texas would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

LAREDO, TX. (KGNS) - The FBI needs your help locating a couple who are believed to be armed and dangerous.

Federal agents are looking for 25-year-old Lorie Lin Flowers, 25 and Santiago Hernandez, Jr. 26, both are from Houston.

The couple is charged in connection to a fatal kidnapping of a group of migrants.

According to reports, back in March, three migrants were involved in an armed kidnapping in Waller County while three other victims were shot and left at the scene.

The victims were allegedly held hostage in Houston area hotels, as the alleged perpetrators requested ransom money from the families.

The charges allege the victims were beaten and threatened while being held for ransom.

Flowers and Hernandez could face life in prison for their alleged role.

If you have any information on their whereabouts you are urged to call the FBI at 1-800-255-5324.

In total 8 people have been charged in connection to the case.