Four Grenades Found in Scene of Triple Homicide

Four Grenades Found in Scene of Triple Homicide

MCALLEN, Texas – Federal agents have been looking into the connections that led to four grenades and high caliber weapons being found in a Rio Grande City home where three men were shot early Sunday morning. 

Starr County Sheriff’s investigators have released little information regarding the victims or the motive of the murders, however, they have identified 24-year-old Eduardo Moreno as a person of interest in the case. 

Authorities had initially responded shortly after 6 a.m. to a residence just west of Rio Grande City for a shooting that had resulted in the death of three Honduran men that have not been publicly identified. 

While sheriff’s investigators are looking into the homicide, agents with Homeland Security Investigations are looking into the identities of the victim, the source of the weapons, and any ties to organized criminal activity. 

The McAllen Police bomb squad responded to the area in order to assist Starr County authorities with the handling of four grenades that were in the property, McAllen Police Chief, Victor Rodriguez, told Breitbart Texas.  

Rodriguez would not comment on specifics of the case referring questions to Starr County authorities; however, he did say that the grenades were being handled by his department in order to assist their counterparts in their investigations. 

“At this point we believe they are live,” the chief said adding that grenades were rare in the area up until two or three years ago when the drug violence in Mexico began to escalate and the demand for them went up. 

The majority of grenades that authorities have recovered in Texas are make-shift in nature, unreliable, and typically made by doctoring dummy grenades, Rodriguez said. 

A source close to the investigation confirmed that three of the grenades were of the fragmentation kind typically called “pineapples” while the other one was a concussion one. 

Rio Grande City lies just north of Camargo Tamaulipas and is the largest city in Starr County, a county considered by law enforcement to be one of the main areas used by drug and human smugglers to enter the United States. 

Follow Ildefonso Ortiz on Twitter @ildefonsoortiz.

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