Cartels outrun, outgun the law at ARIZ border
Cartels outrun, outgun the law at Ariz. border
www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1003dope1003.html#
Fed report details thriving business behind violent international industry
Sean Holstege
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 3, 2007 12:00 AM
MARANA - Maj. George Harris watches from a front-row seat the increasingly sophisticated world of Mexican drug cartels as he skims his National Guard helicopter 200 feet above the southern Arizona desert.
Harris commands an aviation unit for Operation Jump Start, a two-year mission that sent National Guard troops to help secure the U.S-Mexican border. Although stopping illegal immigration grabs most of the public attention, slowing the flow of illicit drugs is a critical part of the job.
Hovering above the Tohono-O'odham Reservation recently, Harris pointed to a volcanic hill riddled with campsites where cartel "spotters" take up key lookout positions to alert smugglers of nearby patrols.
Such hideouts dot just about every hill Harris scouts in the 90 miles between Marana and Why in Pima County . There are more than 100 well-armed Mexican spotters operating in Arizona at any time, Harris and federal agents estimate.
The camps show how pervasive the Mexican drug-smuggling operation has become and why congressional investigators said last week that cartels "operate with relative impunity along the U.S. border."
Mexican smuggling rings, now allied with Colombian cartels, outspend, outgun and frequently outmaneuver government agents from both sides of the border because of enormous revenues and cunning operations.
The drug war is a mismatch in both countries. At best, government statistics show, one load in 10 is seized at the border, where Arizona has become the busiest marijuana-smuggling route.
Billion-dollar business
The Government Accountability Office estimated last week that Mexican cartels earned $8 billion to $23 billion from U.S. drug sales in 2005. The drug syndicate runs street distribution gangs in "almost every region of the United States ," investigators reported.
The U.S. government estimates that 90 percent of Colombian cocaine entering the United States comes through Mexico . That's up from five years ago, when two-thirds crossed the Mexico border.
With $23 billion in earnings, the Mexican cartels would be nearly the size of Arizona 's two biggest companies combined: Avnet and Phelps Dodge. They would rank 97th on the Fortune 500 list, four spots below the Coca-Cola Co.
The money allows cartels to buy equipment, expertise and weapons; bribe police; or hire well-trained army deserters. The Mexican government fired or suspended nearly 1,900 federal employees last year on corruption allegations.
"The only thing that holds the cartels back is their imagination," said Ramona Sanchez, special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Phoenix .
'Like a military operation'
In recent years, officials have arrested drug smugglers in Arizona carrying shoulder-fired rocket launchers. They routinely find assault rifles.
"It's like a military operation," said William Newel, head of the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "If they can lay down suppressing fire to let smugglers get away with their loads, they'll do it. So they want high-capacity, high-power weapons."
Smugglers used such weapons five years ago to gun down Kris Eggle, a park ranger at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and a friend of Harris, the helicopter pilot.
"It's always the good guys that get it," Harris said as he flew through a park canyon crisscrossed with smugglers' tracks.
There are so many tracks in the park that Harris won't let his family visit.
Technology, expertise
The cartels' money also buys technology as well as expertise.
When the National Guard built steel vehicle barriers on the Tohono-O'odham Reservation, smugglers engineered a ramp to drive over them.
The Guard finished a triple fence at San Luis early this year, and once-rampant illegal immigration there almost halted. But last month, work crews discovered a tunnel 30 feet deep that ran under the fence foundations and the water system. Authorities found 45 drug-smuggling tunnels, some with lights and air-supply systems, under the border from 2000 to 2006. The rate is escalating.
Spotters can camp out for weeks in one spot, with smugglers replenishing their provisions. The spotters use GPS equipment, encrypted satellite radios and night-vision goggles to keep smuggling routes open.
The canyons north of Menagers Lake are a popular spot. As Harris flew over the area, he called it the "worst place on the whole border, a nasty little joint," because of all the smuggling violence. Just across the barrier at the border, the driver of a blue four-wheel-drive vehicle watched Harris' helicopter glide by and then disappeared in a cloud of dust.
Flying north, Harris encountered a dozen abandoned smuggling trucks in the first three miles. National Guard troops familiar with the region say there are hundreds of abandoned trucks.
Harris' Task Force Raven has seized 108 trucks in the act of smuggling since July 2006.
Drug war marches on
The U.S. government has spent $397 million since 2000, helping Mexico fight its drug war. The money has gone toward DEA offices, law-enforcement training, border-security grants and helicopters.
"Smugglers hate helicopters," Harris said.
Cartel spotters are invisible from the desert floor. But from the air, their hideouts are betrayed by arranged rock walls and cut brush used for camouflage. As a National Guard officer, Harris does not have the authority to arrest smugglers, so he catalogs the hideouts and tells the Border Patrol.
"I try and get up in the hills and harass the scouts as often as possible," Harris said. "It takes away the smugglers' eyes." [V][xx(][:(][:(!]
www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1003dope1003.html#
Fed report details thriving business behind violent international industry
Sean Holstege
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 3, 2007 12:00 AM
MARANA - Maj. George Harris watches from a front-row seat the increasingly sophisticated world of Mexican drug cartels as he skims his National Guard helicopter 200 feet above the southern Arizona desert.
Harris commands an aviation unit for Operation Jump Start, a two-year mission that sent National Guard troops to help secure the U.S-Mexican border. Although stopping illegal immigration grabs most of the public attention, slowing the flow of illicit drugs is a critical part of the job.
Hovering above the Tohono-O'odham Reservation recently, Harris pointed to a volcanic hill riddled with campsites where cartel "spotters" take up key lookout positions to alert smugglers of nearby patrols.
Such hideouts dot just about every hill Harris scouts in the 90 miles between Marana and Why in Pima County . There are more than 100 well-armed Mexican spotters operating in Arizona at any time, Harris and federal agents estimate.
The camps show how pervasive the Mexican drug-smuggling operation has become and why congressional investigators said last week that cartels "operate with relative impunity along the U.S. border."
Mexican smuggling rings, now allied with Colombian cartels, outspend, outgun and frequently outmaneuver government agents from both sides of the border because of enormous revenues and cunning operations.
The drug war is a mismatch in both countries. At best, government statistics show, one load in 10 is seized at the border, where Arizona has become the busiest marijuana-smuggling route.
Billion-dollar business
The Government Accountability Office estimated last week that Mexican cartels earned $8 billion to $23 billion from U.S. drug sales in 2005. The drug syndicate runs street distribution gangs in "almost every region of the United States ," investigators reported.
The U.S. government estimates that 90 percent of Colombian cocaine entering the United States comes through Mexico . That's up from five years ago, when two-thirds crossed the Mexico border.
With $23 billion in earnings, the Mexican cartels would be nearly the size of Arizona 's two biggest companies combined: Avnet and Phelps Dodge. They would rank 97th on the Fortune 500 list, four spots below the Coca-Cola Co.
The money allows cartels to buy equipment, expertise and weapons; bribe police; or hire well-trained army deserters. The Mexican government fired or suspended nearly 1,900 federal employees last year on corruption allegations.
"The only thing that holds the cartels back is their imagination," said Ramona Sanchez, special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Phoenix .
'Like a military operation'
In recent years, officials have arrested drug smugglers in Arizona carrying shoulder-fired rocket launchers. They routinely find assault rifles.
"It's like a military operation," said William Newel, head of the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "If they can lay down suppressing fire to let smugglers get away with their loads, they'll do it. So they want high-capacity, high-power weapons."
Smugglers used such weapons five years ago to gun down Kris Eggle, a park ranger at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and a friend of Harris, the helicopter pilot.
"It's always the good guys that get it," Harris said as he flew through a park canyon crisscrossed with smugglers' tracks.
There are so many tracks in the park that Harris won't let his family visit.
Technology, expertise
The cartels' money also buys technology as well as expertise.
When the National Guard built steel vehicle barriers on the Tohono-O'odham Reservation, smugglers engineered a ramp to drive over them.
The Guard finished a triple fence at San Luis early this year, and once-rampant illegal immigration there almost halted. But last month, work crews discovered a tunnel 30 feet deep that ran under the fence foundations and the water system. Authorities found 45 drug-smuggling tunnels, some with lights and air-supply systems, under the border from 2000 to 2006. The rate is escalating.
Spotters can camp out for weeks in one spot, with smugglers replenishing their provisions. The spotters use GPS equipment, encrypted satellite radios and night-vision goggles to keep smuggling routes open.
The canyons north of Menagers Lake are a popular spot. As Harris flew over the area, he called it the "worst place on the whole border, a nasty little joint," because of all the smuggling violence. Just across the barrier at the border, the driver of a blue four-wheel-drive vehicle watched Harris' helicopter glide by and then disappeared in a cloud of dust.
Flying north, Harris encountered a dozen abandoned smuggling trucks in the first three miles. National Guard troops familiar with the region say there are hundreds of abandoned trucks.
Harris' Task Force Raven has seized 108 trucks in the act of smuggling since July 2006.
Drug war marches on
The U.S. government has spent $397 million since 2000, helping Mexico fight its drug war. The money has gone toward DEA offices, law-enforcement training, border-security grants and helicopters.
"Smugglers hate helicopters," Harris said.
Cartel spotters are invisible from the desert floor. But from the air, their hideouts are betrayed by arranged rock walls and cut brush used for camouflage. As a National Guard officer, Harris does not have the authority to arrest smugglers, so he catalogs the hideouts and tells the Border Patrol.
"I try and get up in the hills and harass the scouts as often as possible," Harris said. "It takes away the smugglers' eyes." [V][xx(][:(][:(!]
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397 billion, could have bought alot of missiles. post the hell out of the area and start blowing chit up.
Duhhh even i know you can't kill a hornets nest with a fly swatter.0 -
Seems to me that in the absence of a huge fence the only way to secure a border is to start shooting. 0 -
Hey guys when I post about the illegals, I don't and won't support any kind of force that's what our Military, Border Patrol or Police are for. I blame Mexico President, Our government and Business owners who hire the illegals. 0 -
I heard Bush requested another $12 billion for more Border Patrol agents...
... He found out all of them haven't been prosecuted yet.[xx(]0 -
Right after the first Gulf War, the A-10s at Davis-Monthan was being considered to augment the border patrol's drug interdiction mission. Sounds like a new target range and nice sortie to me [}:)]! 0 -
Feenix,
A-10's as border control?
AWESOME!0 -
The Truth as reported yet again from the [}:)]border[}:)]. Why not cut and paste this very article and mail it to your elected goverment/politicial officials. Demand an answer from them, ask what if anything,they themselves have ever done,or are now presently doing,to fight this undeclared ongoing open war with Mexico,[|)]and it's demented citizenship [;)][;)]?
Yes most, if not all will shrug and send you a form letter with their rubber stamped signature,saying that they were either working on some commission or secret nameless committee that looked into these alleged problems, but were unable to find any evidence of wrongdoing [;)][:o)].
Or perhaps at this time,their own hands are tied,and they are now again busy with other non issues,or perhaps they might just say that they were unaware their was even a problem with drugs and Mexicans on our border[;)][;)].
You will not likely hear your politicians report that most of them were all busy on vacation last month in Mexico City, at their annual cocoa puffss reunion and galla ball [:0].
The problem herein lies with feel good,do nothing policies,already in place,and the do nothing politicians that preach to us, in a vain attempt to try and promote their twisted view of the perverted world they live and work in.
These elected politicians covert support for all drug smugglers and their drugs are bought and paid for by the drug cartels. Politicial support and the drug users themselves on this side of the border ARE THE PROBLEM. Cut off the head and the body will die.[:(!][V] p.s. Have a nice a nice day my fellow victims. [:D][:D]0 -
Gotta get my screen cleaned; thought it said,"camels". 0 -
I'm tellin' you guys... LANDMINES, RAZORWIRE, AND WARNING SIGNS are cheap compared to building a stinking fence.[}:)] 0
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