Fallen El Paso DPS Troopers honored in boat dedication ceremony

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) - Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Javier Arana, Jr. and Special Agent Anthony Carlos Salas both served the El Paso community and died in the line of duty.

Two tactical marine units, each valued at $500,000 were dedicated in their honor during a special ceremony Saturday morning at Ascarate Park in El Paso's Lower Valley.

"We wanted to extend it as a department by naming the boats after them so that their legacy and their name lives on," said Texas DPS Sgt. Eliot Torres.

Arana was a 2010 graduate of the DPS Academy and stationed in El Paso.

On March of 2012, he was responding to a vehicle pursuit in east El Paso.

His patrol car was struck at the intersection of Joe Battle Boulevard and Bob Hope Dr. by a Ford Ranger and caught fire.

Arana then 32 died at the scene. He was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and served with the Texas Highway Patrol for about two years. He left behind a wife and five children.

Special Agent Anthony Salas was also a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and joined the DPS in July 2013. He was commissioned as a Trooper in 2014 and promoted to Special Agent in 2019.

He died in a tragic crash, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, while working with the U.S. Border Patrol supporting Operation Lone Star near Eagle Pass.

Salas left behind his wife and three children.