Operation Cowboy has begun to attempt to halt the cattle rustling along the border with Haiti. Supported by six helicopters and a large quantity of all-terrain vehicles, hundreds of soldiers scouted the area along the Haitian frontier looking for drugs, stolen vehicles and rustled cattle. El Caribe reports that Major General Jose Ricardo Estrella and the Tenth Batallion are in charge of the operation. The area around Dajabon has become an area of intense violence with the reported ambush of a UN patrol in Haiti and the murder of a suspected cattle thief by local cattlemen. Rebels and the Haiti government dispute the control of the Customs house in Quanaminthe (Juana Mendez). Local authorities from both sides of the frontier were present at meeting with the chief of the Dominican Army, Ricardo Estrella Fernandez.