Border News

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the Ajo Station arrested a previously-deported Mexican man Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 30 and later discovered he was convicted of multiple felonies including homicide in Arkansas.

Agents patrolling near Gila Bend arrested 41-year-old Manuel Marcial-Lopez for being illegally present in the United States. During processing, records checks revealed that Marcial was convicted of negligent homicide in Faulkner County, Arkansas in 2011. Records also revealed Marcial was convicted of second degree burglary in California in 2008.

Marcial will remain in federal custody pending prosecution for criminal immigration violations.

TUCSON, Ariz. -A 20-year-old Guatemalan man has been charged with assault on a federal officer after he fought with two Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents south of Sells, Arizona, on Thursday morning.

Two agents patrolling on off-road motorcycles tracked two suspected illegal aliens a few miles north of the U.S. border. One agent located and arrested a 34-year-old Mexican man. The other agent located and attempted to arrest a 20-year-old Guatemalan man nearby but was pulled off his motorcycle and physically assaulted by the subject. The agent's partner assisted in restraining the subject as the man continued to fight both agents before being placed under arrest.

Henry "Enrique" Morones, nationally-known founder of the Border Angles, arranged a cross-border wedding for a convicted drug smuggler at Friendship Park in San Diego. The Border Patrol provided security for the event, a cartel wedding. It was probably regular Border Patrol agents who exposed this outrageous farce via their Union representative.

The Border Angels is a American nonprofit group that facilitates the smuggling of illegal aliens and fake refugees from Mexico and Central America into the United States. Some believe that the Border Angels have connections to the cartels and this event appears to support that suspicion. This video was taken down from the KUSI website a few hours after being broadcast, most likely because Morones threatened them, somehow. It has been re-posted for your information. Friendship park, on the border near San Diego, just provides a convenient place for propaganda events for open-border advocates. It is a waste of resources for the Border Patrol and should be closed permanently.

Funding for the border wall was added to the bill in a 230-196 vote. Five Republicans defected to join all Democrats in opposition. The broader security package then cleared on a 235-192 vote. Amazing, we've found the one form of government spending Democrats are opposed to.

On Thursday, June 16, 2017 US Border Patrol agents served a search warrant at a camp in the southern Arizona desert, which was suspected of aiding illegal immigrants to enter the US illegally. Four Mexican men have been arrested.

The camp, which is a non-profit aid camp operation by No Mas Muertes (No More Deaths), is about 11 miles north of the US/Mexico border and offers medical care to illegals crossing the desert. It has been functioning since 2004.

A player for a Mexican Primera Division soccer team has been arrested at the US-Mexico border, accused of trying to smuggle nearly 48lbs of methamphetamine into the United States.

Daniel Gomez, who plays for the Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente reserve team, was arrested on the morning of April 5 and charged with importing a controlled substance.

Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, identified as the man who fired the shots that killed Terry in December 2010, was arrested Wednesday at a ranch on the border of Sinaloa and Chihuahua, Fox News reported, citing US and Mexican government sources.

The US Marshals, Border Patrol, and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reportedly took part in the operation alongside Mexican law enforcement. Osorio is currently being held in Mexico, and the US government will seek his extradition.

"Mexico has moved from a migrant-sending country to a migrant-receiving country, a situation which has become an intense problem," said Vargas.

Ranchers here have been steaming over the reported kidnapping of a ranch hand in December, when drug runners allegedly hijacked the man’s vehicle, loaded it with narcotics and drove him to Arizona. He came home “roughed up,” his employer Tricia Elbrock said, but he survived the ordeal.

Smugglers transporting five pounds of heroin and 23 pounds of marijuana were busted Saturday at the Port of Lukeville, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.

In one case, officers found $75,000 worth of heroin in the lining of luggage a man was carrying while walking into the U.S.

Less than half of the U.S.-Mexico border is under “operational control” at this point, the chief of the Border Patrol agents testified to Congress Thursday, detailing the porous situation and violent conditions in the southwest.

Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, also said one out of every five illegal immigrants agents caught along the border in 2014 had a criminal record, which helps explain some of the violence that occurs.

All told, 91,000 criminal aliens caught by the Border Patrol were deported last year, compared to about 486,000 total illegal immigrants caught.

Nearly half of the criminal aliens deported had aggravated felonies on their records, Mr. Judd testified to the House Oversight Committee.

Breitbart Texas has learned that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) helicopter was shot down or forced to initiate an emergency landing in Laredo, Texas due to receiving gunfire from the Mexican side of the border. The helicopter was interdicting a narcotics load and working alongside agents from the U.S. Border Patrol, who operate under the umbrella of the CBP. The helicopter was operating in the Laredo Sector of Texas, immediately across the border from the Los Zetas cartel headquarters of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

Del Cueto tells us that because some of those M4s have not been replaced, agents are pooling their weapons, which makes it difficult to personalize the settings on a rifle, such as the sights.

Border Rancher Warns of Cartel Border Takeover on U.S. Soil

Texas border rancher Cuban "Rusty" Monsees describes how the Mexican drug cartels are taking over Texas border ranches and using death threats, assault, and attempted murder to drive ranchers and their families off of their land. He tells how some of his neighbors are fleeing their ranches, while others are standing firm with the help of volunteer patriot security patrols.

He explains how the politicians and agency talking heads from Washington DC on down to corrupt locals, are all lying to the American people and not telling how ranchers are being overrun and attacked by a foreign enemy, on U.S. soil. He describes how the border is in fact wide open, with cartel drug and human traffic smugglers bringing anything they want, and anyone they want, across, including multiple incidents of illegal aliens from Muslim nations, and even known terrorists on the U.S. Terrorism Wanted list.

He also describes attacks on Border Patrol agents, on ranchers and their employees, and abduction and attempted abduction of children who will then be sold into sex slavery. He calls on Texans to "cowboy up" and help him and his neighbors stop the cartels and gangs from taking over the Texas side of the border. He has had veterans from across the country come to his ranch to help him protect himself from the cartels, but they need Texas veterans to step up and put boots on the ground to keep the cartels from murdering these brave ranchers and their families.

===================
http://tinyurl.com/qea7jff
NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas - The National Council of Border Patrol Agents
(NBPC) is responding to the increasing assaults against the agents
who protect our border with the production of a documentary movie
that tells their story. While violent assaults frequently leave
agents injured and even hospitalized, U.S. Attorneys often fail to
prosecute the illegal aliens who commit the assaults. As recently
as last month, charges against an accused illegal alien drug
smuggler who assaulted a Border Patrol agent while attempting to
escape were dismissed. The documentary will tell the story of these
agents and the outrageous behavior of the government in not
prosecuting these cases.

Breitbart Texas news contributor, Ildefonso Ortiz, reported the
assault of a Border Patrol agent by an alleged drug smuggler that
resulted in the agent being rushed to the hospital where he was
admitted for his injuries. "While the court records claim that the
assault was a scuffle that resulted in the agent getting a cut lip
an injured knee and elbow, in reality the agent was rushed to Starr
County Medical Center," Ortiz wrote. "There, he spent three days in
the hospital and three weeks out of the job recovering from his
injuries." In a plea bargain agreement, the assault charges and the
drug smuggling charge were dismissed and the alien pleaded guilty
to a lesser charge.

Agents are frequently assaulted by illegal aliens who throw large
rocks at them as they work along the border. The assaults often
result in head and other bodily injuries. One of these agents is
Border Patrol Agent Christopher Harris who was violently assaulted
by an illegal alien who struck him in the head with a large rock.

"This agent is based out of the San Diego Sector and has been an
agent for 17 years," said Shawn Moran, National Border Patrol
Council Vice-President. "We feel that when this mini-documentary is
complete, people will better understand what an agent goes through
physically and emotionally after a rock attack. This agent still
suffers from the effects of the rocking and endured years of
bureaucratic nightmares just so he could keep his job."

Breitbart Texas Managing Director, Brandon Darby, raised the alarm
on this issue in 2013 when he reported the El Paso Sector of the
border was declared a "High Risk Enforcement Area" due to the
increasing number of violent assaults against agents. Darby wrote,
"The declaration came in March of 2013, but the numbers have
continued to rise, according to Stu Harris, Vice-President Local
1929 of the National Border Patrol Council."

The assaults continue and prosecutions are rare sending a signal to
illegal aliens that there is little to no risk in assaulting agents
while attempting to escape capture. The documentary is expected to
be released later this fall.

"The National Border Patrol Council encourages anyone who believes
that rocks are not deadly weapons to view this documentary and see
the real world impact these assaults have," Moran concluded.

Bob Price is a staff writer and a member of the original Breitbart
Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
=====================

=========================
August 20, 2014 by Brandy Baron
[Watch] Globally, Only One Nation's Military Fires Weapons At
Americans - Mexico
http://tinyurl.com/qcsal27
Border Patrol Agent and spokesperson Chris Cabrera is a guest of
Stuart Varney on the Neil Cavuto program on Fox, in which he shares
his views of the border situation and the impact of the National
Guard deployment in Texas.

He responds to a statement issued by the Mexican government which
reads in part, "Texas deploying National Guard troops along the
border ‘Deviates from the path of dialogue and cooperation."

Cabrera, who is the Vice-President of National Border Patrol #3307,
recommends that Mexico "stay out of it" and "stick to their own
business" when it comes to the Texas National Guard deployment. He
says that they aren't doing their part for security and have no
authority to comment on our methods.

Varney raises the point that Mexico has similar forces deployed on
their side of the border, and questions whether or not the fact
that we both have militarized forces deployed would increase the
likelihood of armed confrontations between our two countries.

Cabrera responds saying, "Yeah, well, you know we have a lot of
cross-border shooting as it is already. We've had multiple
incursions from their military and their national police crossing
into our areas, they've done so in the past, they've done so
recently and for some reason they never take responsibility for
their actions."

Who would be the ones to hold them accountable, Obama and Johnson?
That won't happen. Their repeated firing upon our personnel and
violating our sovereignty continues because there are no
consequences, just as the invasion continues because those who
engage in it are rewarded. The Mexican military is acting in
conjunction, and probably in coordination with American policies,
as established by the White House and DHS. For them impede the
Mexican aggressions would be highly counter-productive to the goals.

Varney mentions Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), the leader of the racist
Hispanic Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, who
characterized the illegals as "'leaving behind men with guns in
Central America and then met by men with guns in America.' He says
that ‘they are children, it's not an invasion,'" and asks for
Cabrera's response.

Cabrera says, "You know part of the crossing, we do have children
crossing, however, we have a lot of criminals that are crossing,
multiple repeat offenders, we're having drug dealers, drug
smugglers, we're having a lot of bad people coming in. And
unfortunately we live in a world where police forces need guns and
I think he really just doesn't know what he's talking about."

Cabrera may be being polite; Gutierrez knows what he is talking
about. He knows full well that armed Mexicans are firing onto the
American side of the border. It's common knowledge and he is
intimately involved in the importation of illegals. Saying it isn't
an invasion doesn't change the reality; it's merely a diversionary
tactic. He is complicit. He is working to import as many illegals
of every Hispanic stripe as he can to fulfill his racist agenda and
the Mexican government and military are his allies in that effort.

Cabrera says the Border Patrol Agents need to be returned to the
border and allowed to do their jobs.

As for the Texas National Guard deployment deviating from the path
of dialogue and cooperation, it's long since overdue. Talk is cheap
and with the Obama administration, rarely honest or representative
of American interests. Cooperating in the invasion of our nation is
not something we should be engaged in. The condemnation of Texas'
actions, particularly in these terms, by Mexico, signals that we
are finally doing something to benefit our own country and citizens.

The United States has troops deployed around the globe. While some
of the locations are hostile and dangerous, with insurgents firing
upon our troops, including National Guardsmen, the only nation-
state at this time which engages in firing upon U.S. forces is our
supposed ally, Mexico.

Not North Korea, not Iran, not Libya or Syria, not Russia or China.
None of what are claimed to be our biggest threats and enemies
internationally engages our American personnel in direct fire with
theirs. Mexico alone holds that distinction and yet our feckless
and corrupt government fails to respond, fails to recognize the
threat and fails to hold them accountable.

The reason Mexico is allowed to get away with attacking Americans
is because they are allied with the subversive criminals within our
government whose goal is to conquer our nation. Mexico is not a
friend of the United States. They are one of our greatest threats,
making it possible for undesirables to enter our country at will.

They are only the allies of the subversive individuals and
alliances who hold positions of power within our government at this
critical point in our history. They will not be held accountable
until we, the people, regain control of our government.

VIDEO:
http://launch.newsinc.com/share.html?trackingGroup=91074&siteSection
=breitbartprivate&videoId=26529621

Rick Wells is a conservative author who recognizes that our nation,
our Constitution and our traditions are under a full scale assault
from multiple threats. Please "Like" him on Facebook, "Follow" him
on Twitter or visit www.rickwells.us

Reporter: Border Patrol Told to 'Let as Many Go as Possible'
http://tinyurl.com/kk2bfjj

Border Patrol agents are being told to be lenient on illegal
immigrants, says investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson.

"Whether spoken or unspoken, there is a policy coming from the top
that they're basically to be very lenient and try to let as many
people go as possible, that's what they think, that's the message
they think they're receiving," Attkisson said Thursday on Laura
Ingraham's radio show.

Agents believe "they're being told not to do the job," said
Attkisson, a former reporter for CBS News who now writes for The
Daily Signal.

"I spoke to a member of Congress, if I understood him correctly,
who said some of the court dates being given are 10 years out,"
Attkisson added.

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of purposely
allowing Illegal immigrants across the Mexican border in an attempt
to win more of the Hispanic vote for Democrats.

Democrats are facing a tough midterm election, with fears that a
low turnout of their base could put the Senate in Republican
control.

Posted: Friday, July 25, 2014 7:33 am | Updated: 8:46 am, Fri Jul
25, 2014.
By Curt Prendergast
Nogales International | 0 comments
Nogales youngsters raced around the bases at Fleischer Field on
Wednesday evening as a new scoreboard showed them beating Idaho 11-
2 in a Little League tournament game.
The $14,000 scoreboard, like many other items and events throughout
the county, was paid for with proceeds of drug trafficking busts,
which have totaled $3.3 million in the past three years, according
to records provided by the County Attorney's Office, which oversees
the funds.
The records show anti-racketeering funds being used for everything
from a $4,000 donation for a basketball game between sheriff's
deputies and high school students in February, to spending $1,700
to bring a young singer to local schools in February 2013 and
putting up $3,000 for the Teacher of the Year Ceremony in August
2013. They were even used to buy a $2,400 air conditioning unit for
the Nogales Senior Center in June.
The county budget approved July 16 also included $174,000 in anti-
racketeering funds for the Sheriff's Office, $137,000 for the
Nogales Police Department, and $389,000 for the County Attorney's
Office.
"The general notion is that people that engage in crimes ought not
be allowed to enjoy the ill-gotten fruits of their crimes," said
Andrew Pacheco, criminal division chief at the Arizona Attorney
General's Office.
The "fruits" of those crimes are subject to forfeiture under state
statute, with the proceeds going to further investigations into
gangs, drug trafficking, and racketeering offenses, he said.
Most, if not all, Arizona counties have set up racketeering funds
administered by county attorneys, Pacheco said.
In Santa Cruz County, the proceeds come from auctions of vehicles,
houses, and property a judge deems to have been purchased with
proceeds from drug activity, as well as cash seized after stash
houses or smugglers are busted, said County Attorney George Silva.
Southbound inspections on Interstate 19 also result in cash
seizures, but only some of that cash ends up in the Anti-
Racketeering Fund, he said. The Nogales Police Department monitors
I-19 through a state grant and proceeds from busts are sent to the
Arizona Attorney General's Office and only a portion comes back to
Santa Cruz County.
However, when members of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
(HIDTA) Task Force make the bust, the money ends up in the Anti-
Racketeering Fund, he said.
In a notable seizure from a few years ago, NPD seized about
$700,000 from smugglers at Walmart, while federal agents seized
about $300,000 from another vehicle involved in the incident at a
local port of entry, Silva said.
Using the funds
The County Attorney's Office has used the funds to pay officer
overtime and training, including the Arizona Narcotics Officers
Training program going on this week, Silva said.
The bulk of the expenditures included in the records obtained by
the NI through a public records request are salaries, travel
expenses, training, vehicle purchases and maintenance, and
communications equipment.
The money also has been used to purchase vehicles, Tasers,
bulletproof vests, and equipment for canine units, Silva said. And
it pays for anti-drug publicity in outlets including the Nogales
International.
In addition, the County Attorney's Office spent about $40,000 in
the past three years on new furniture for Silva's office and the
former county jail once it became home for the then-Metro Task
Force.
The furniture was purchased according to a state contract and can
be moved easily for future purposes, Silva said.
But how does a new sofa help combat drugs and organized crime?
While furniture, basketball games and singers aren't necessarily
tools used to fight drug use and gangs, state statute allows the
funds to be used for any purpose permitted by federal law, with the
U.S. Department of Justice's guide for equitable sharing allowing
counties to purchase items or fund programs for community-based
organizations.
"Anything that is remotely connected to youth and drug prevention,
that's how we get to use those funds," Silva said, noting the
United Way Border Shootout gave scholarships.
With regard to the purchase of the air conditioning unit at the
Nogales Senior Center, Silva pointed to the importance of
connecting senior citizens with the youth as a drug prevention tool.
"When I get these donation requests, I try very hard to find a
connection. I want to spread the money out as much as I can," he
said.
Courts
While the County Attorney's Office reaps a windfall from busting
drug traffickers, the local court system is forced to shoulder many
of the costs of processing those criminal cases, even those that
occur at ports of entry or checkpoints, without any additional
funding from the federal government.
Due to the potential for allegations of conflict of interest, the
anti-racketeering funds cannot be used to lessen the financial
burden on the courts, Silva said.
"The perception that somehow now the courts owe me something, it
just throws the whole justice and fairness thing out the window, or
at least the perception," he said.
For example, if the Justice Court needed a new vehicle and anti-
racketeering funds were used to purchase it, judges would have to
disclose a potential conflict of interest every time the County
Attorney's Office was involved in a case.
Defense attorneys could object, saying the judge would give better
treatment to prosecutors than defendants, he said.
"I stay away from it. I don't give any donations or make any money
available for those needs," he said, noting the only contribution
to the courts was a WiFi network that his office provided for
prosecutors.
‘Four pots'
In years past, the anti-racketeering funds were put into "one pot,"
but when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took over the
Metro Task Force in 2012, turning it into the HIDTA Task Force,
they asked that the funds be shared, Silva said.
Now, the funds are put into "four pots," one each for the Sheriff's
Office, NPD, the County Attorney's Office, and a miscellaneous pot
that goes to the Department of Public Safety, Patagonia Marshal's
Office, or any other agency involved in busting drug traffickers,
he said.
If NPD made a bust on I-19 and brought the case to Silva's office,
70 percent of the proceeds would go to NPD and 30 percent to the
County Attorney's Office. However if HIDTA makes a bust, the funds
are put into the four pots.
If Border Patrol makes a seizure and brings the proceeds to the
County Attorney's Office, 100 percent of the proceeds stay at the
county, Silva said. However, Silva reciprocates by buying equipment
such as night vision gear for the Border Patrol if agents request
it, he said.
‘Slowing down'
The Anti-Racketeering Fund has been in operation since before Silva
began working there in 1999, he said. However, the revenue has
"slowed down" in recent years, he said.
"During good years, it's because federal agencies have been giving
us vehicles," he said.
At one point, the auctions included 180 vehicles brought by Border
Patrol or other agencies. Now, they struggle to get 60 in order to
have another auction, he said.
While Silva said he didn't know exactly why the vehicle seizures
are going down, he mentioned the possibility of decreased smuggling
activity in the county and the move last year of the Rod Robertson
auction lot from Nogales to Tucson.

======================
Rancher calls new pipeline 'super highway' for drug smugglers

Posted: Jul 24, 2014 6:11 PM
Updated: Jul 24, 2014 6:11 PM
By Som Lisaius - email

SASABE, AZ (Tucson News Now) -
If you've driven State Route 286 near Three Points, there's a good
chance you noticed construction crews along the side of the road.

They're working on a massive, $200 million pipeline that's going to
connect Southern Arizona and Mexico for the transfer of natural gas.

But as you might imagine, any project of this magnitude certainly
isn't without opposition.

To give you some idea how big this project is, we're talking about
60 miles of underground pipeline from the Mexico border all the way
north to the southern tip of Tucson Mountain Park.

That's a lot of land. And a lot of impact. And nobody's feeling
that impact more than property owners in between.

Melissa Owen is owner of Rancho Sierra Vista de Sasabe, a sprawling
640-acre ranch that's been part of the Southern Arizona landscape
since 1929.

"This is where I want to live for the rest of my life...and this is
where I hope I'll die," she says.

Located four and half miles north of the border, near Sasabe -- the
ranch has seen its share of illegal activity through the years.

But Owen feels the worst is yet to come, now that a new pipeline
and service road are being carved, quite literally, through her
property.

"No longer just migrants, " she says. "It's drug smugglers coming
across from the border. That's going to simply supply them with a
150-foot-wide super highway from the border to Tucson."

We attempted to contact Border Patrol officials Thursday about the
area in question and how, if any, this might affect their patrols
near Sasabe, the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge and other
private/public lands impacted by the new pipeline.

"The Border Patrol used to by sympathetic," she says. "Then
suddenly agents weren't allowed to talk to us about the project.
And then the new patter from the Border Patrol was well...'We've
got it handled -- everything will be just fine.'"

Over the last three years, conservationists have fought the project
valiantly, but ultimately lost the battle when it was approved by
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

"It will come with it a swath of 150-foot road, cutting through
pristine desert and ranch lands of Altar Valley," says Carolyn
Campbell, executive director of the Coalition for Sonoran Desert
Protection. "That most definitely will be affected...and
ecologically, it may never be the same."

"There is so much wildlife here. But it's also very serene, very
isolated," she says.

"I've been hearing it in my nightmares," she says, shaking her head
-- it's now unclear if Owen will stay in the place she wanted to
spend the rest of her years.

"Some day people are going to look back and say the Altar Valley
was home to eight endangered species, including the jaguar -- and
we allowed this pipeline to go through it. What a horrible mistake."

The entity responsible for the massive pipeline project is Texas-
based energy company Kinder Morgan Inc.

Earlier this year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
required Kinder Morgan to employ mitigation efforts to limit
adverse effects on the desert, its plants, wildlife and the
surrounding area.

The commission acknowledged that re-establishing vegetation along
the pipeline route could take years, perhaps even decades.

The commission further concluded, with the exception of a few
native plants, building and operating the pipeline poses no
significant environmental impacts.

http://tinyurl.com/n22fbwl
Altar Valley Residents Fear Proposed Pipeline Will Facilitate
Border Crime
UPDATE: 4/24/12

Tucson, AZ March 30, 2012-Concerned and fearful citizens packed a
public hearing March 30 held by the Pima Natural Resources
Conservation District (PNRCD). El Paso Natural Gas Corporation
presented its plan to construct the first natural methane gas
pipeline to run the length of southern Arizona's Altar Valley. The
company, recently acquired by Kinder Morgan, intends to connect the
pipeline at Sasabe to a customer's new pipeline coming from Puerto
Libertad, Sonora.

The "Preferred Alternative" would bury the pipeline nominally 30"
deep through State and private lands between Three Points and
Sasabe, two miles west of Highway 286 according to Mr. John Jermyn,
an engineer with El Paso Western Pipelines headquartered in
Colorado Springs and Mr. Loren Locher, the Stakeholder Outreach
Coordinator from the company's Houston office. Construction would
begin by third quarter of 2014 and take six months to complete.

Altar Valley is a broad open landscape of large family-owned
ranches. In 1995 the ranching families in the valley formed the non-
profit Altar Valley Conservation Alliance to scientifically steward
the valley's 610,000 acre watershed, part of which includes the
Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR), now a partner. More
recently Pima County, now also a partner, purchased several ranches
as part of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. The Alliance has
received more than one noteworthy environmental stewardship award
for their successful efforts to restore the watershed, reverse
erosion, and improve forage and wildlife habitat on working cattle
ranches.

The greatest concern among the meeting attendees, however, is their
personal safety. The prospect of the El Paso Gas company purchasing
or condemning State and private easements, leveling a 36-mile swath
of ground 300 feet wide and removing all vegetation including the
endangered Pima Pineapple Cactus, foreshadows a permanent new
road-a virtual beeline from the Sea of Cortez into the valley- that
will be controlled by drug and human smugglers.

The repeated suggestion by Mr. Jermyn that, "we'll just have to put
our heads together to keep that from becoming a road," only
inflamed the prevailing fear and distrust. Security in the valley
is bad enough already. Armed scouts control the hilltops, guiding
groups of illegal immigrants and drug mules using cell phones,
night vision goggles and GPS. In December 2010 Border Patrol agent
Brian Terry was murdered by bandits armed with ATF "walked" weapons
in the Atascosas. Many more violent incidents have occurred in the
same area since then. Last week the Border Patrol apprehended an
alleged "rip crew" there. Recently a hunter and his pre-teen
daughter were held at gunpoint by smugglers. Another hunter and his
family were shot at, followed home and threatened by smugglers.
Likewise, Arizona Game and Fish employees have dodged bullets.

One obstacle to obtaining a permit to cross the BANWR with a
pipeline is that the US Government, in response to cartel activity,
prohibits citizen access to its southernmost 3,500 acres. That
inconvenient truth debunks any claim that the border is safe or
secure. To make matters worse, illegal immigrants started dozens of
border wildfires last summer, including two that joined and
displaced up to 100% of the livestock off five ranches in the
Atascosa Mountains.

Mr. Jermyn, seemingly misinformed, mentioned that border crossings
have declined from 2,000 a day to 100 a day, "now that you have the
wall." By this time Chairman Drew McGibbon had ordered civility be
maintained. PNRCD Supervisor Jim Chilton replied that a great
portion of that "wall" is nothing more than a rickety four-strand
barbed wire fence. Chairman Drew McGibbon pointed out that numerous
people in the room had been close personal friends of rancher
Robert Krentz who was gunned down on his own property by a
suspected illegal immigrant two years earlier, almost to the day.
Krentz had been serving as Chairman of the Whitewater Draw NRCD
until the day he was murdered.

The proposed pipeline would purportedly transport natural gas to
Mexican customers, although other foreign countries obviously could
be supplied via Puerto Libertad.

The company spokesmen stated that if there is sufficient customer
demand north of the border then natural gas could be sold on the US
side as well. El Paso's natural gas pipelines in Tucson, however,
are running nowhere near capacity. That is inefficient and costs
customers extra, Mr. Jermyn said. He further stated that El Paso
Gas currently pays $1.2 million in annual property taxes to the
State of Arizona. The completed project would more than double that
revenue in addition to the revenues derived from the utility
easement crossing State School Trust lands.

A second alternative is to bury the pipeline alongside State
Highway 286, eliminating the creation of any new road. That would
require an easement on federal land inside the BANWR-a location the
company fears would preclude them from obtaining permits. The
route, were it not for the permitting issues, would cost less than
the Preferred Alternative.

Alliance co-chair Mary Miller suggested burying the pipeline along
Interstate 19 to Nogales. The environmental impact would be
minimized along that route and it would not require crossing the
National Wildlife Refuge. Mr. Jermyn replied that such a plan would
require El Paso's customer to install an additional 30 miles of
pipeline south of the border so the suggestion is uninteresting to
the planners. Oddly, nobody mentioned that an interstate natural
gas pipeline is already operating in Nogales, but related questions
can be raised in a future meeting.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), requires a "No
Action" alternative be considered. A local activist from a
litigious environmentalist nonprofit corporation told this author
that she predicts "the No Action alternative will prevail."

NEPA further requires federal agencies to coordinate land use
planning on an equal footing with local governments to avoid
running roughshod over local plans and policies. The PNRCD Board of
Supervisors voted to retain an attorney to discuss possible
coordination with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and
other agencies regarding the proposed pipeline.

UPDATE: 4/24/12
=============================
Ex-employee of Mexican consulate arrested for alleged drug smuggling

http://tinyurl.com/mb9kw48
A former employee of the Mexican Consulate in Yuma is facing
prosecution for allegedly smuggling cocaine into the United States
at a time when he was serving in the consular post.

Jose Luis Moreno Serrano was arrested April 25 after a traffic stop
by federal officers near Yuma led to the discovery of 101 pounds of
cocaine in the vehicle he was driving, according to documents filed
in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

Moreno Serrano is charged in that court with one count of
importation of a controlled substance and one of possession with
intent to distribute a controlled substance.

Calls by Bajo El Sol to the Mexican Consuate in Yuma were referred
to the Mexican Embassy in the United States, which said that at the
time of his arrest, Moreno Serrano was a temporary employee for the
consulate who did not enjoy diplomatic immunity. The embassy said
he was terminated from that post on the same day as his arrest.

According to court documents, the Homeland Security Investigations
directorate of the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement was able to identify Moreno Serrano as a consular
employee whose duties included assisting Mexican citizens involved
in the U.S. criminal justice system.

While serving with the consulate, Moreno Serrano routinely commuted
between Mexico and Yuma, crossing the border at the U.S. Port of
Entry at San Luis, Ariz., through a SENTRI expedited crossing lane,
according to court documents.

Moreno Serrano's arrest came after HSI officers obtained a search
warrant enabling them to use a Global Positioning Satellite
tracking device on the burgundy Dodge Journey that he drove between
the two countries. While installing and maintaining the device,
according to court records, officers noticed what appeared to be a
hidden compartment built onto the undercarriage of the vehicle.

Crossing the border on April 25, Moreno Serrano was followed by HSI
officers, who stopped him on Highway 195 south of 32nd Street.

A search of the vehicle led to the discovery of 40 packages
containing cocaine in two hidden compartments, one under the
driver's seat and the second under the seat of the front passenger,
according to court records. The drugs were valued at $2.7 million.

Moreno Serrano told investigators he had been paid $4,000 to drive
the drugs to a Yuma residence, although he did not know the type or
quantity of the drugs he was carrying, according to court records.

He said he was making his second delivery of drugs to the home at
the time of his arrest, according to court records. The address of
the home was not disclosed.

==============================
http://tinyurl.com/p7lqrdj
A flood of families crossing the southwestern U.S. border illegally
is prompting the Obama administration to revive a much-criticized
detention program that previously led to children and their parents
being held for extended periods of time in harsh prison-like
conditions.

Figures released last week by Customs and Border Protection show
more than 55,000 "family units" - at least one adult relative
traveling with one or more children-- were apprehended crossing the
border in fiscal 2014. That figure is an increase of nearly 500
percent from the previous year and dwarfs the 106 percent spike in
unaccompanied children -- to more than 57,000 --- that has received
so much attention in recent months.

Now the Obama administration is rushing to open up detention
centers to hold the families -- mostly women with children from El
Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras -- and is working out streamlined
procedures to quickly send them back to their homelands, a
turnabout in policy that is being widely panned by immigrant
advocates.

"The fact that these mothers have fled violence to protect their
children, to protect their own lives, to protect their families'
lives is not being heard by the federal government," Royce
Bernstein Murray, director of policy at National Immigrant Justice
Center, said Thursday.
Family detention has for years been one of the most controversial
parts of the American immigrant detention system, the world's
largest.

Unaccompanied immigrant teens and children, who are routed to a
network of shelters run by non-profit and religious groups and
overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services pending
immigration court hearings. But families apprehended along the
border are increasingly being treated like single adult immigrants:
locked up in secure facilities to await what is intended to be
expedited deportation back to their home countries.

The U.S. has tried large-scale family detention before. That
operation sparked a lawsuit after it was discovered that children
and their parents were being held in a former prison for long
periods in punitive conditions.

In 2007, advocates sued the Department of Homeland Security,
alleging it was keeping families at the 512-bed T. Don Hutto
Residential Center near Austin, Texas, under virtual 24-hour
lockdown and denying them privacy, educational opportunities and
adequate health care. The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil
Liberties Union and other immigrant advocates, said toddlers in
prison garb spent most of the day locked in their cells at the
private facility run by the Corrections Corporation of America,
waiting for head counts. When the ACLU investigated in December
2006, it said some children had not stepped outside in a month.

"The conditions were truly horrible," said Vanita Gupta deputy
legal director of the ACLU, who helped bring the lawsuit.

The suit was settled and the government agreed to changes at what
was then the nation's largest family detention facility. Then in
2009, the Obama administration announced a widespread overhaul of
its detention system that included shuttering Hutto. ICE kept open
only one small family detention facility in Pennsylvania, releasing
most families with an order to appear in court when notified of
immigration proceedings.

The unprecedented number of families apprehended at the border in
the last year has led to a reversal of that policy. The Obama
administration is in the process of ramping up operations at two
new federal detention centers to house immigrant families - in
Artesia, New Mexico, and Karnes City, Texas - adding about 1,100
beds. That's only the beginning of what could be a far larger
family detention system if President Barack Obama's $3.7 billion
emergency funding request to address the border crisis is approved.
It includes $879 million to track, detain, prosecute and remove
those families. It also would pay for additional 6,350 family
detention beds, which cost the government an average of $119 a day,
to house them and open 23,000 daily slots for alternatives to
detention, including electronic ankle bracelets to track those
released.

The move is part of the administration's effort to quash rumors in
Central America that families who make it to the across the Rio
Grande can stay.

"Our message is clear to those who try to illegally cross our
borders: You will be sent back home," Homeland Security Secretary
Jeh Johnson testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on
July 10.

Detention is one part of a broad effort by the Obama administration
to facilitate "expedited removal" of these families, which
generally reduces opportunities to go before a judge and explain
their cases. While the U.S. has for years had the authority to
speed removal of families apprehended within 100 miles of the
border and in the country for less than two weeks, the procedure
has been little used. Instead, they were generally released and
told to report to immigration court.

"There are alternatives to detention that are far less costly,
and far more appropriate, for kids and their parents fleeing
persecution in their home states."

"I have very little confidence that DHS will be able to scale up
family detention in a way that ensures that conditions are safe,
humane and appropriate for kids and their parents," said Ruthie
Epstein, a policy analyst with the ACLU. "There are alternatives to
detention that are far less costly, and far more appropriate, for
kids and their parents fleeing persecution in their home states."

As ICE resumes widespread family detention, the facilities chosen
thus far suggest the lessons of Hutto have not entirely been
forgotten.

The first, a 672-bed center in Artesia, New Mexico, is located on
federal law enforcement training campus. Families sleep in rooms
with bunk beds and are allowed outside, though they remain overseen
by guards and the secure facility. By August there will also be
schooling for the kids, as state law requires.

A federal employee is seen walking past cribs inside of the
barracks for law enforcement trainees turned into immigrant
detention center at the Federal Law Enforcement Center (FLETC) in
Artesia, N.M., on June 26. Federal officials say this federal
training center that is home to the Border Patrol Academy that will
become a 672-bed detention center for adult immigrants who entered
the country illegally and are accompanied by children.

Opening on federal land circumvented many roadblocks that have
stymied the opening of facilities for unaccompanied minors
elsewhere. But immigrant advocates say the rush to open may
compromise Homeland Security Secretary Johnson pledge that
detention and expedited deportation proceedings for families will
be "consistent with all existing legal and procedural standards."

Officers at Artesia were still scrambling this week to put up signs
detailing people's rights, and even then, many were only in
English, said Madhuri Grewal of Detention Watch Network, who toured
the facility on Tuesday. Parents interviewed there described being
confused about the process and their rights, and expressed concern
their children were losing weight and becoming depressed or
suicidal, advocates said.

Grewal is also concerned that families there may not know those
with "credible fear" of persecution or torture if returned to their
countries have a right to apply for asylum.

A stroller is seen inside a room of Border Patrol's Federal Law
Enforcement Center in Artesia, New Mexico, which has been turned
into a 672-bed detention center for immigrant families.

"A lot of these women do have a fear of returning but they are not
being afforded to process that we do have in place," said Grewal.
"It's a total circumvention of the law."

According to the DHS, 100 adults and children have been removed in
both expedited and traditional proceedings since Artesia opened,
and the administration has pledged to continue the swift removals,
which it says are legal.

About 600 more family beds will soon open up at the Karnes County
Civil Detention Center in Karnes City, Texas. The center, run by
the private GEO Group, was built to serve as a model of less
punitive immigration detention, with a soccer field and eight-bed
rooms rather than cells.

ICE modified its contract with GEO on July11 to switch Karnes from
a men-only facility to one for families, slated to open within
weeks. GEO, which earned $240 million last year through its
contracts with ICE, according to its annual filing declined a
request for comment on the facility and the contract modification,
referring NBC News to ICE. The Department of Homeland Security,
ICE's parent agency, did not respond to repeated requests for
comment on the amount or length of the contract.

GEO, which owns a subsidiary company with a five-year, $372.8
million contract to perform electronic monitoring for ICE, may also
benefit if Obama's request to have 23,000 family members placed on
alternatives to detention, which would likely include ankle
monitors, is approved.

HUNTING AZ
http://www.outdoorlife.com/photos/gallery/guns/rifles/centerfire/201
1/11/20-best-semi-automatic-rifles-big-game-hunting

All other reasons for choosing/not choosing an AR-style or other
autoloader for hunting, let me run another reason by you
guys.Living in Az, I can tell you that we can sometimes face
"problems" the average hunter in let's say Montana or Kansas
wouldn't dream of. I am not claiming that this happens to everyone
but it does happen, especially to those of us that hunt southern
Az. Once, while deer hunting south of Tucson with a Ruger No1
(singleshot rifle), I saw and was seen by 3 Mexican gentlemen. One
was carrying a rifle, the other two carried heavy backpacks (drug
mules). The guy pulling security began firing at me, forcing me to
fire back but even though I enjoyed the advantage of owning the
high ground, it was kind of hard to gain fire superiority with a
single shot versus a semiauto AK variant.Another time, I was
followed by 3 to 4 men during a night varmint hunt. Luckily, I had
night vision and they did not,so I was able to go dark and let them
walk past me, speaking spanish about the gringo they were going to
shoot. Needless to say, I now hunt with an AR chambered in 223 and
6.5 depending on what I am offered and carry spare hi-cap mags,
just in case along with a Glock 19 and a fully stocked blow-out
kit. Mostly hunting alone, I have learned not to go out unprepared.
Unfortunately, between the president, the media, and people in
denial, most of the country doesn't know how bad things can get
around the border. So, in other words, until you've taken a stroll
around Patagonia Lake in southern Az,looking for Coues whitetails
or quail hunting on the east-side of the Catalina Mountains, alone,
don't criticize my selection of long guns. Adios amigo!
=====================
When Visiting Southern Arizona: BLM Cautions Public of Illegal
Activities Occurring in Southern Arizona
http://ironwoodforest.org/visit/activities-and-safety/
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands in southern Arizona
continue to experience illegal activities, including drug and human
smuggling. Visitors to public lands are encouraged to be aware of
their surroundings while in southern Arizona. In the past,
encounters with drug smugglers have typically been non-violent in
nature; however, recent BLM law enforcement reports indicate
smugglers may be armed and have displayed aggressive behavior
toward people working or recreating on public lands in southern
Arizona.

Visitors to BLM public lands in southern Arizona, including the
Sonoran Desert and Ironwood Forest National Monuments, need to be
aware of these activities. Remember the following safety tips:

Cell phone service is out of range in many remote areas.
Know where you are at all times, follow good safety procedures
and use common sense when making decisions.
Do not pick-up hitch hikers.
Keep valuables, including spare change, out of sight and lock
your vehicle.
Avoid traveling outside of well-marked roads and routes.
People in distress may ask for food, water or other assistance.
Do not make contact. Report the location of the distressed people
to the nearest BLM or other law enforcement authority.
Report ANY suspicious behavior to the nearest BLM office or
contact Law Enforcement Dispatch.

The BLM is alerting the public to be aware of their surroundings
when visiting public lands in southern Arizona, and to follow the
safety tips above. Your safety is important. If you see anything
that looks illegal, suspicious or out of place, do not intervene.
Note your location and call 911, or report it to the BLM Law
Enforcement Dispatch at (623) 580-5515(623) 580-5515, as quickly as possible.
=====================

http://tinyurl.com/oh8wulu MORE AT URL
Not Up the Creek...Yet
As Arizona faces potential water shortages, experts on divided on
the solutions, though many remain optimistic.
by Kyle Mittan
click to flip through (3) PHOTO BY KYLE MITTAN.

Karl Flessa will tell you that it's not that hard to collect
seashells. All it takes is a bucket.

But the average beachcomber isn't bringing the specimens back to a
lab to study population densities, reconstruct the salinity levels
of the ecosystem and figure out how long ago the creatures that
inhabited the shells were alive.

Flessa, the founding director of the University of Arizona's School
of Earth and Environmental Sciences, has focused on the Colorado
River delta since 1992. During his first trip there two decades
ago, he found beaches made up almost entirely of mollusk shells-a
result of the dry delta, which hadn't seen water from the river in
years.

"The puzzle was that we couldn't find very many live individuals of
the species that made those shells, and it was at that point we
realized the environment had changed," he said. "What we were
looking at ... was the remains of the former living community. That
was a record of what the delta used to look like before upstream
dams and diversions used up most of the water before it got to the
gulf."
=============================
Drought among the worst in Texas in past 500 years

SAN ANTONIO - Will record-breaking droughts become the "new normal"
for South Texas?

That question was posed by the state Climatologist John Nielsen-
Gammon at a meeting of the Edwards Aquifer Authority board Tuesday.

The current drought, which started four years ago, is among the
five worst in the past 500 years, he said. If it continues to be as
dry as it is has been, the drought could be the third worst.

El Niño conditions "definitely seem to be on the way," he said,
which could usher in a cool, wet winter and up to 5 inches of
additional rainfall.

In the long term, because of changes in the global climate, South
Texas "could see both worse droughts and worse floods," Nielsen-
Gammon said.
==================================
32 Texas water suppliers face water shortages

UBBOCK, Texas (AP) - More than 30 small Texas public suppliers
could run out of drinking water in 45 to 90 days as the state's
drought worsens.

No residents will go without water, the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality said Wednesday, and if a supplier runs out,
then water will be trucked in.

Most of the suppliers are located in rural areas or outside of
large metropolitan areas, with the worst situations in West Texas -
the driest of the areas affected by a yearslong drought. The
commission estimates 11 water suppliers could run out in 45 days -
affecting a total of about 8,600 business and residential
connections. Another 21 suppliers could run dry in 90 days.

"The TCEQ takes an active role in assisting these water systems,
from helping to secure new water supplies, reuse and conserve
existing supplies, and working with other funding agencies in
seeking resources for new alternative water supplies, treatment and
infrastructure," spokesman Terry Clawson said in an email.

The Texas Department of Agriculture and the Texas Water Development
Board have provided grants or low-interest loans to communities
needing to fund projects such as drilling wells, moving intakes, or
interconnecting with other suppliers.

Statewide, 387 public suppliers have imposed voluntary restrictions
on users while 778 have announced mandatory restrictions.

A lack of rainfall is to blame for most suppliers' situations as
Texas wades through a fourth year of drought. The situation is
worst in West Texas, where some areas are now drier than the 1930s
Dust Bowl.

January through April in Texas was the fifth driest on record, with
just 45 percent of the normal 7.1 inches of rainfall, National
Weather Service meteorologist Victor Murphy said Wednesday. Those
four months were just slightly wetter than the same time period in
2011, which ended up being the state's driest year ever.

Reservoirs across Texas are 64 percent full, the lowest amount for
this time of year since 1990. Normal for this time of year is 84
percent full.

Through Tuesday, many large cities also were well behind normal in
rainfall for the year: Dallas is behind by 9.53 inches, Houston by
5.12 inches, San Antonio by 5.3 inches and Austin by 4.44 inches.

Relief could be on the way, though, as weather officials monitor an
El Nino system in the Pacific Ocean that could bring wetter
conditions later this year.
http://tinyurl.com/opwdlon
======================
THE WAR ON AMERICA,JUST WHO IS THE ENEMY

El Paso, TX (KTSM) - With the stroke of President Barack Obama's
pen, the Organ Mountains in Las Cruces are now a national monument.

The region includes, among other attractions, Billy the Kid's
Outlaw Rock, Apache Chief Geronimo's Cave, and the Butterfield
Stagecoach Trail.

In a speech he gave early Wednesday he said, "I'm using my
executive authority to protect more of our pristine landscapes by
designating the organ mountains desert peaks region a national
monument."

One strong advocate is happy see the 10 year battle finally won and
protecting the landmark from being developed.

"It will always be public land," said Lucas Herndon, Executive
Director of Friends of Organ Mountains- Desert Peaks. "From here on
out, we can always count on the lands included in this monument as
being public and open to the public."

One local business owner said this new designation is going to
drive tourism back to the region.

"The tour industry of that kind has kind of evaporated for the
southern New Mexico region we'd like to see it come back this might
be that catalyst," said owner of the food truck Happy Dog, Russ
Smith.

In fact, New Mexico Senator Tom Udall said more than 7 million
dollars are expected to be generated.

"People will be coming in from all over the world," he said. "It's
going to help tourism it's going to help local people who like to
go out and like to hike and hunt."

Officials said the tourist attraction, White sands National
Monument tourist attraction has brought in millions of dollars to
the economy over the years.

"They were able to generate economically $21.8 million for the
local region within a 60 mile radius," said Superintendent of the
White Sands National Monument Marie Sauter.

"That will block me off from being able to collect most of the
stones I carry. About 25 percent of what I have comes from Las Uvas
and Kilbourne Hole," said Dodds Cupit, owner of Naturally Found New
Mexico.

Aside from not being able to collect and sale rocks, Sheriff Todd
Garrison said safety is also an issue.

"When we take so much land so close to the border that's been
proven in other areas to be used for illegal and criminal activity,
for who know who to come across," he said. "I believe that is
putting our country at risk, it's putting our county at risk and
its putting our state at risk."

"All of the law enforcement people, the sheriff, the border patrol
can do everything they've been doing in the past we didn't make any
changes on that and any future legislation will work with them,"
said Udall.

Herndon welcomes the public to contact their organization for any
questions you may have regarding the Organ Mountains.

You can reach them at 575-323-1423575-323-1423 or on their website
www.organmtnfriends.org

=========================
http://tinyurl.com/mhp83yo
NEW CREATIVE SMUGGLING
========================

===========================
Illegal Immigrants Allowed to Go Free
http://www.krgv.com/news/illegal-immigrants-allowed-to-go-free/

HARLINGEN - Federal officials are releasing women and children who
enter the country illegally, a CHANNEL 5 NEWS investigation
revealed.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS reported in 2013 that the feds were releasing anyone
deemed a low threat to national security.

Border Patrol officials on Friday confirmed a spike in illegal
crossings in the Rio Grande Valley. The agency reassigned agents to
the region to deal with the increase in crossings.

A CHANNEL 5 NEWS crew on Monday found a group of women and children
at a bus station in Harlingen. The group had just been released
from Border Patrol custody.

"I feel very happy, because other mothers can't do this," said Mari
Jimenez, a Guatemalan national.

Jimenez and her 2-year-old daughter, Marlifer, prepared to board a
bus. The single mother said she carried her baby from Guatemala to
the border.

Federal officials gave the woman documents that allow her to travel
anywhere in the United States.

"Thanks to the authorities who gave us this chance to see our
families," Jimenez said.

Hermilia Maria Ortiz Moran, a Guatemalan national, said detention
centers are overcrowded.

Border Patrol officials said most of the immigrants crossing the
border come from countries other than Mexico. They said some of
those immigrants are sent to Laredo or Del Rio for processing.
Still, many are being released.

The immigrants get documents that indicate what they can and can't
do during their stay in the United States.

Ortiz and her three children are scheduled to appear before a
deportation officer on May 27, in Hartford, Conn.

"First and foremost, I have to thank God and ask him if there are
any opportunities for work, I will work. Just as long as the
permission allows us to," Ortiz said.

The papers she got from officers prohibit her from working. They
also must not commit any crimes. They must report any change of
address to federal officials.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS reported in July, 2013, about the flaws in the
deportation system.

Dina Turcios was released at a Brownsville bus station in April,
2013. She was supposed to report to the feds in Dallas, but that
didn't happen. Turcios skipped town and moved to New York City.

It's unclear if federal officials ever found Turcios. It's also
unclear how many others have disappeared into U.S. cities after
their release.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS contacted Border Patrol officials about the group at
the Harlingen bus station. They confirmed the women and children
were all illegal immigrants.

"In an effort to maximize resources and focus on the uptick in
apprehensions, RGV Border Patrol Sector has begun implementing
several steps. These efforts include, transporting detainees to
other sectors within the South Texas Campaign AOR, temporary
reassignment of agents from other sectors into RGV and temporarily
issuing a notice to appear for immigration hearings to family units
posing no threat to national security," the statement read.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS reached out to legislators for comment about the
releases. Congressman Henry Cuellar issued the following statement:

"As a Congressman representing the border, and someone who has
breathed the air and drank the water of the region for his whole
life, I will be the first one to say that we need to do everything
we can to secure the border in a smart way and enforce our
immigration laws. Law enforcement prioritizes the removal of
criminal aliens and law enforcement agents are doing their best to
detain criminals that pose a risk to our communities. Agents are
doing their best to keep our border secure with limited resources
and I commend law enforcement agents for their commitment to
keeping our families safe."

http://www.kvoa.com/news/illegal-immigrant-deported-once-before-is-
caught-again-on-weapons-charge/
Illegal immigrant deported once before is caught again on weapons
charge

COOLIDGE - A previously deported illegal immigrant has been
arrested on weapons charges and using a fake identity.

On Tuesday, March 25th at 3:25 p.m., a deputy assigned to the Pinal
County Sheriff's K-9 Unit stopped a 1992 Toyota Corolla on Highway
87 at Skousen Road in Coolidge for several traffic violations. The
driver of the vehicle, 25-year old Jesus Angulo-Palafox of Mexico,
gave the deputy a fraudulent Arizona Identification Card, which
contained his picture and a different name. Angulo admitted to
purchasing the fake id for $300 from a vendor at a Phoenix-area
swap meet. Angulo was arrested for Taking the Identity of Another
and Possession of a Forged Instrument.

A search of the vehicle revealed a loaded .40 caliber Smith and
Wesson handgun concealed between the rear seat and the trunk of the
vehicle. A check of Angulo's fingerprints revealed in 2012 he was
deported by the United States Border Patrol on a Weapons Offense
and for Transportation of Narcotics. Since he is a prohibited
possessor due to the prior felony convictions, he was also booked
into the Pinal County Jail for Misconduct Involving a Weapon.

The front seat passenger, 23-year old Miguel Luna, also from
Mexico, admitted to being in the United States illegally. Luna was
turned over to the custody of the United States Border Patrol.

Sheriff Paul Babeu stated, "Pinal County is in the middle of one of
the most active drug and human smuggling corridors in our country.
As a result, our deputies and citizens continue to deal with these
types of cases on a daily basis. We have invited the president and
other elected officials to come to Pinal County to see the activity
firsthand. It would be hard for anyone to argue the border doesn't
need to be secured if they truly spent time looking at the issue
from those who are forced to deal with the problem firsthand."
==============================================
Police Bust Stash House in Edinburg
http://www.krgv.com/news/police-bust-stash-house-in-edinburg/

EDINBURG - Police busted a stash house in the 300 block of San
Pedro Drive in Edinburg. They arrested 18 men and 6 women from
Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

Edinburg police said they got a tip about the stash house. They
called Border Patrol after they found the illegal immigrants.

ROMA - Three men and a woman are being detained following a drug
raid in Roma. The South Texas HIDTA Task Force raided a home on the
2500 block of Mark Street Thursday morning.

Officers said two men were quickly caught after trying to flee from
the scene. Sixty bundles of marijuana were found in the home. The
drugs weighed in at about 680 pounds.

The owner of the home and his wife were also taken into custody.
This investigation continues.

==========================
A Border Patrol Agent Will Soon Face an Unwarranted Media Attack
A Border Patrol Agent Will Soon Face an Unwarranted Media Attack

Category: Immigration
Published on Monday, 31 March 2014 12:34
Written by Mike Nicely

In a post I wrote on March 8, I lamented the media's
mischaracterization of Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher's use of
force memorandum to agency personnel. The national media was
positively giddy about the compulsory "limitations" and
"restrictions" on the use of deadly force against attackers using
"only" rocks in their endeavor to kill a Border Patrol Agent. The
media has persisted with their erroneous reporting to such an
extent that much of the general public may now believe Border
Patrol Agents will not resort to deadly force when faced with a
potentially lethal rock assault.

As I wrote in my previous post, Chief Fisher did not expand the
historical limitations on the use of deadly force in any way. When
attacked with any instrument likely to cause death or great bodily
harm, a Border Patrol Agent is authorized to use sufficient force,
up to and including deadly force, to neutralize the threat. The
horribly inaccurate reporting regarding the Border Patrol's use of
force policy will have real consequences.

In the not-too-distant future, a Border Patrol Agent will find it
necessary to use deadly force in order to survive a rock assault.
The media, having incorrectly convinced themselves and the public
that responding to a rock assault with deadly force is prohibited,
will publicly crucify the agent. There will be demands for firing
and prosecuting the agent who intentionally disobeyed a nonexistent
policy that was wholly contrived by media hype. Chief Fisher will
be raked over the coals for not providing sufficient oversight to
ensure adherence to a policy he never wrote.

The Border Patrol will be wrongly identified as a rogue, out-of-
control law enforcement organization in dire need of increased
oversight. Illegal alien support groups like the ACLU and La Raza
will clamor for congressional hearings and there will be a
determined effort to link stalled immigration reform legislation to
border violence.

There are some unearned troubles bearing down on the U.S. Border
Patrol.
Category: Immigration
Published on Monday, 31 March 2014 12:34
Written by Mike Nicely

There are some unearned troubles bearing down on the U.S. Border
Patrol.
=============================
Operation Crackdown Hits Laredo

EL PASO - In an unusual partnership, the South Texas city of Laredo
is teaming with the U.S. Border Patrol and the Texas National Guard
to help rid itself of abandoned structures that have been labeled
eyesores and havens for criminal activity.

The guard's project, known as Operation Crackdown, is well-known
across the state, having demolished 1,350 structures by the end of
2013, many of which had been identified as stash houses for drug
runners or migrant smugglers.

But in Laredo, for the first time, the Border Patrol has joined the
guard's effort. Laredo officials announced this month that they
were working with the Border Patrol to submit a list of abandoned
buildings - including houses, sheds and commercial properties - for
possible demolition.

The Border Patrol officials said the project was a way to help
control crime along the border.

"We can join forces so we can do something about these substandard
properties that we come across during our regular patrols," Greg
Salinas, a Border Patrol agent and agency spokesman, said, adding
that the buildings were used as stash houses for illegal immigrants
or narcotics. "They will just use it as a temporary holding place
where they can come across, hide and leave, or jump into a vehicle."

The Border Patrol and the Laredo Police Department have already
identified about 77 structures in the city; 28 of those have been
given final approval after meeting certain requirements, and
demolition will begin in May.

City officials said that the project did not involve law
enforcement inquiries or Border Patrol apprehension operations.

"This is just to knock down these homes," a city spokeswoman,
Xochitl Mora Garcia, said.

If property owners do not consent, many of the buildings could be
condemned because of their condition, which would require property
owners to fight condemnations in court, or have the buildings
brought up to code. Mora Garcia said both options would cost the
city and the owner.

"The city will continue to follow up and fight them for not meeting
compliance for whatever violations that they have," she said. "The
city does have a mechanism to do a forced condemnation. That's a
different process where we'd have to go through the courts and
there are other costs involved to the city."

In speaking of the effort, the city, citing a National Guard
presentation, said 83 percent of abandoned dwellings showed signs
that drug abuse, prostitution or other criminal activity had taken
place.

"Crime rates are twice as high on blocks with abandoned or open
buildings than on controlled buildings blocks," the city said in a
statement when the program was announced.

Mora Garcia said property owners who chose to participate would not
pay for the demolition, and they would not be held liable for
whatever illegal activity has occurred on the abandoned properties
either.

Salinas said the National Guard pays for the bulk of the project,
including equipment and personnel costs. The National Guard could
not provide a per-unit price for demolition, but said a two-week
mission costs about $30,000.

The city pays for the debris removal, asbestos testing and
abatement, landfill use and permit costs, while the Border Patrol
incurs no cost.

The city must also clear the demolitions with the Texas Historical
Commission, and the National Guard needs to obtain additional
permission and documents.

Though the Laredo initiative is the first such partnership with the
Border Patrol, Operation Crackdown has visited the Texas-Mexico
border before.

In December, guard members demolished what the Harlingen police
said was a stash house less than a mile from a school. That was
part of an operation that targeted about 30 structures in
Harlingen. It came after trips to the city in 2011 and 2012 in
which 55 dwellings were torn down, according to the Texas National
Guard website.

The National Guard tries to complete four Operation Crackdown
missions every fiscal year.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at
http://www.texastribune.org/2014/03/31/operation-crackdown-hits-
laredo/.
===================
What Should Investors Know About Security Issues On Mexico's Other
Border?

I watched Hugo Rivera, a broad shouldered state police trooper,
steer his patrol truck over the bumpy road along the border between
Mexico and Guatemala. Two border patrol officers in military gear
carrying machine guns sat in the back of the truck. Rivera looked
out through the windshield, eyeing the lush green trees that line
the river that marks the border. His AR-15 rifle bounced against
the seat next to him as he pulled the truck towards the section of
the river where migrants cross on inner tubes en-route towards
Mexico's northern border and eventually, the United States.

"We see a lot of cases of Central Americans coming up to rob the
migrants. The ones with the tattoos stand out. MS-13, [Barrio] 18 -
there are a lot of bad guys coming out of El Salvador," Rivera told
me.

The area was once a major crossing point for migrants leaving
Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. In 2005, however, Hurricane
Stan destroyed the railway that crossed through Ciudad Hidalgo.

"You used to see the whole top of the train covered with people,
but now it's fewer [migrants] since the train stopped [running
through here]," Rivera told me.
Mexican border patrol agents stand watch at an informal crossing
along the river that marks the border with Guatemala. Photo by N.
Parish Flannery @LatAmLENS

Mexican border patrol agents stand watch at an informal crossing
along the river that marks the border with Guatemala. Photo by N.
Parish Flannery @LatAmLENS

In an article I wrote for March issue of Monocle magazine I
explained, "A combination of security problems and the struggle to
boost economic growth has seen the numbers of migrants crossing
into Mexico increase substantially."

Insecurity in countries south of Mexico's border continues to be a
driving force for north-bound migration.

During a shootout in early 2013, Guatemalan soldiers killed
four men riding in a bulletproof truck. At the time, local media
quoted Guatemala's Interior Minister as confirming that Sinaloa
cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán was killed in the
firefight. It turned out to be an unconfirmed report.

Members of the Zetas, another powerful Mexican cartel, have
pushed southward and are now working alongside Mara Salvatrucha
gang members and other criminal organizations in Guatemala and the
rest of Central America.

Lara Sierra-Rubia, a political risk analyst specializing in Latin
America at Red 24, a global security consultancy based in London,
told me, "[Former Mexican president Felipe] Calderón's war on
cartels placed pressure on Mexican cartels, and control over
Central American routes for narcotics transportation became
increasingly important to the organizations." As Mexican cartels
pushed south, violence in many Central American countries increased.

"Every country in this region, to a greater or lesser degree,
suffers from drug-related violence," Sierra-Rubia added.

In my Fox News Latino article I explained, "Starting in 2008, the
Zetas pushed into Guatemala in an attempt to seize control of this
increasingly important crossing point. Most violence in Guatemala
occurs in the country's capital city and along the Pacific coast
near the country's southeastern border with Honduras and El
Salvador."

Adriana Beltran, a researcher at the Washington Office on Latin
America, a think tank, told me, "In Guatemala, El Salvador and
Honduras we've seen an increase insecurity and violence over the
last few years due to the growing presence of drug trafficking."

Chiapas is Mexico's poorest state, but it serves as a magnet for
migrant laborers who cross the river from Guatemala. Chiapas is
home to major coffee growing operations run by companies such as
Starbucks and Nestle, corporations that reported, $14.9 billion and
$104 billion in revenues last year, respectively. While Latin
America's economy continues to evolve (Nestle reported double digit
sales growth in the region in 2013) Guatemala continues to lag
behind other countries in the region.

In Guatemala, foreign direct investment accounts for barely 2
percent of GDP. In the late nineties, Guatemala emerged from near
four decades of civil war, but has struggled to implement
meaningful economic development initiatives. Nearly forty percent
of Guatemala's labor force works in agriculture, and the country's
major exports include coffee and bananas. About half of the
country's population lives below the poverty line.

Chiquita Brands International, the current manifestation of The
United Fruit Company, continues to operate in Guatemala. Dole Foods
and Fresh Del Monte Produce also operate banana plantations in
Guatemala. Del Monte owns more than 8,800 acres of land in
Guatemala and leases an additional 4,200.

Dole's 10-K report for fiscal 2013 explains, "In Latin America, we
source our bananas primarily in Honduras, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
Colombia, Guatemala and Peru, growing on approximately 32,300 acres
of Dole-owned farms and approximately 65,500 acres of independent
producers' farms."

Although the country continues to produce and export bananas and
other agricultural products, in recent years street organized crime
activity in Guatemala has created new problems for residents.

However, as Guatemalan and Mexican authorities have arrested and
killed a number of Zetas leaders, the group's presence in Guatemala
has been weakened. Still, street crime and gang violence continue
to affect the lives of many Central Americans.

The triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras is now
considered to be the most violent non-war zone on the planet. San
Pedro Sula, Honduras, was the most violent city in the world in
2012, recording more than three murders a day.

Guatemala City has also emerged as one of the region's most
violent. Between 2008 and 2012, more than 24,000 murders took place
there. A similar dynamic of street violence and homicides has taken
root in El Salvador, the home base of the Maras.

By contrast, in Chiapas during 2010 and 2011 fewer than 200
murders a year were reported. The number nearly doubled in 2012 to
392, but that's still much lower per capita than the number
reported in Mexican cities such as Ciudad Juarez and Acapulco, or
even U.S. cities such as Chicago and New York.

"There was a shootout a few years ago but now it's pretty
peaceful," Rivera, the Mexican border agent, told me, as he looked
out at the rippled surface of the river.

"Mexico's northern border is more problematic," Rivera said. "Here,
it's pretty peaceful," he added.
=======================================
Author shares views on US border issues
presented by Center for Latin American and Border Studies

tfrank@nmsu.edu
LAS CRUCES, N.M.>> New Mexico State University's Center for Latin
American and Border Studies will host a presentation on the book
"Border Patrol Nations: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland
Security" by Todd Miller at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday at the Nason
House, 1070 University Ave.

Miller, a journalist with experience writing about U.S.-Mexican
border issues, tells the story of the U.S. Border Patrol and
Homeland Security's reach into lives of U.S. citizens, legal
immigrants and undocumented immigrants in his first book.

"I read an advance copy of "Border Patrol Nation" a few months
ago," said Molly Molloy, library professor. "It is an excellent
piece of reporting and research about the militarization of the
border, not just at the geographic borders of the U.S., but inside
the country as well.

"The Border Patrol now operates anywhere and everywhere in the
country where the undocumented, or people who look like they might
be undocumented, live and work. The current administration has
deported more than 2 million people in recent years, leaving broken
families in communities all over the country. Todd Miller talks to
immigrant families, workers, employers and members of the U.S.
security apparatus and tells us how it really works."

The event is free and open to the public. For more information
visit clabs.nmsu.edu.

Follow NMSU News on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NMSUNews
==============================
Ariz. County Loses Appeal Over Marijuana Seizure

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/ariz-county-loses-appeal-
marijuana-seizure-23126838

The Supreme Court has refused to overturn Arizona court rulings
ordering the Yuma County sheriff to return marijuana that was
seized from a woman with a California medical marijuana
authorization honored by Arizona.

The justices' order was issued without comment Monday in the case
of Valerie Okun, who had marijuana in her car when a Border Patrol
agent stopped her and her husband in Yuma County, Ariz., in 2011.
She was charged with marijuana possession crimes, but the charges
were dropped when she provided proof she was authorized to possess
marijuana under California's medical marijuana program. Arizona's
medical marijuana law allows people with authorizations from other
states to have marijuana in Arizona.

But the Yuma County sheriff refused to return Okun's marijuana,
even after Arizona courts ruled in her favor.
=============================
Parents Wanted in Amber Alert Turn Themselves In: Police

Source: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/SD-San-Diego-Border-
Amber-Alert-Parents-of-Four-Abducted-Children-
253227941.html#ixzz2xb5GLDHE
Follow us: @nbcsandiego on Twitter | NBCSanDiego on Facebook

Two parents who allegedly took their four children by force from
their grandmother's home in the Los Angeles area last week have
turned themselves into authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border south
of San Diego.

Enrique Felix and Rosa Chairez were detained by Border Patrol
agents before being taken into custody by the Los Angeles Police
Department.

The father, Felix, is described as a Hispanic man, 28 years old, 5
feet 10 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. The mother,
Chaidez, is described as a Hispanic woman, 5 feet 2 inches tall
with red hair and brown eyes.

The children were identified as 7-year-old Enrique Felix, 5-year-
old Justin Felix and 1-year-old twins Veronica Felix and Janeth
Felix.

Source: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/SD-San-Diego-Border-
Amber-Alert-Parents-of-Four-Abducted-Children-
253227941.html#ixzz2xb5W6gbv
Follow us: @nbcsandiego on Twitter | NBCSanDiego on Facebook
=======================================

"Anytime individuals in military uniforms cross a border that's
obviously cause for concern. This incident deserves a close look,"
Sen. Tom Coburn said.

WASHINGTON - Just before 8:30 a.m. January 26, two figures dressed
in camouflage and carrying military assault rifles crossed an
international border, making their way on foot through the quiet
desert terrain, unaware that they were under the constant watch of
authorities in the country they had just entered.

Within minutes a border patrol agent confronted the two men.
Weapons were drawn. Asked for identification, the two men provided
their names - which didn't correspond with the names on their
uniforms. After a brief, tense standoff, the two men retreated back
across the border just as reinforcements were arriving.

No, this isn't the opening scene to the next season of Homeland, or
some harrowing special-forces mission gone wrong in a distant
corner of the world.

The armed incursion occurred on United States soil, outside Sasabe,
Arizona, just north of the U.S. Mexico border. Drug dealers and
migrants use a large wildlife preserve to the east and the empty
desert to the west of Sasabe as trafficking corridors.

Both Mexican and U.S. border agents have crossed over the border in
this area, pursuing suspects. But according to officials familiar
with the situation, border crossings by members of either military
are rare. In a January letter to the head of Customs and Border
Protection about the incident, Sen. Tom Coburn asked if the agency
has "concerns that some members of the Mexican Military could be
providing security and/or intelligence to Drug Trafficking
Organizations." The Sinaloa Cartel, widely considered one of the
world's most powerful drug syndicates, operates along the Sasabe
stretch of the border.

"Anytime individuals in military uniforms cross a border that's
obviously cause for concern," the Oklahoma Republican told BuzzFeed
Friday. "This incident deserves a close look."

An internal CBP "Foreign Military Incursion" incident report was
provided by a confidential informant to BuzzFeed and verified by
Sen. Coburn. It makes for riveting reading.

At about 8:53 a.m. Mountain Standard Time, an official monitoring
video surveillance "had a visual of two subjects entering the
United States approximately 2.5 miles west of the Sasabe Port of
Entry." Border Patrol Agent David Olaya "reported subjects appear
to be Mexican Military personnel approximately 50 yards north of
the International Border. At 0920 hours, BPA Olaya stated he
positively identified the two individuals."

According to the report, "both parties drew their weapons." The two
men in camouflage had H&K G3 long arms, a type of assault rifle
commonly used by the Mexican military.

Olaya said the two men identified themselves as members of the
Mexican Military's 80th Battalion. But the names they gave didn't
match the names on their uniforms. Additionally, the men informed
Olaya "that they had been pursing [sic] three subjects that were
seen in the area." The incident report does not indicate that the
video surveillance system had seen any other individuals in the
area.

By this time, according to the incident report, officials at the
border patrol were trying to contact Mexican military officials.
"At approximately 0926 Supervisory Border Patrol Agent (SBPA)
George Serrano ... was contacted and apprised of the situation. SBPA
Serrano attempted to make contact with the headquarters of SEDENA
45th Military Zone," which covers the area around Sasabe. "A voice
message was left at the office," the incident report says.

Two minutes later, "both Mexican Military personnel turned
southbound after they saw other [Border Patrol] units westbound
toward BPA Olaya." Within seven minutes, the two men had crossed
back into Mexico.

Although CPB Acting Watch Commander Eduardo Fuentes was alerted, it
does not appear he took much action beyond reviewing the incident
report. Additionally an agent with the Border Patrol's Critical
Incident Team - which investigates shootings and other incidents
involving agents - "stated they will not be responding to this
incident," according to the report.

Olaya could not be reached for comment, and CBP spokeswoman Jenny
Burke did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The Mexican
embassy in Washington also did not respond to a request for comment.

Congressional investigators have had no better luck in getting
answers from CBP, which has a history of ignoring information
requests from lawmakers in both chambers.

For instance, Sen. Robert Menendez has filed multiple requests with
CBP for its policies regarding the use of deadly force. Although
CBP has conducted a review of the practice, it has yet to provide
the New Jersey Democrat or congressional investigators with the
policies behind its use of force, particularly against Mexican
nationals. Similarly, CBP has been accused of stonewalling
congressional investigators and outside watchdog groups over
conditions in its detention centers.

In his January letter, Sen. Coburn asked CBP Acting Commissioner
Thomas Winkowski a series of questions about the incursion into
U.S. territory, including whether top CBP officials were informed
of the incursion and whether CBP has verified the two men were in
fact military personnel.

Coburn, the ranking minority member of the Senate Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs Committee, asked CBP to respond by
February 3. He told BuzzFeed this week that he has yet to hear back.
=================================
Mexico govt says it's slain capo 'killed' in 2010

Read more here: http://www.modbee.com/2014/03/09/3230472/mexico-
govt-may-have-slain-capo.html#storylink=cpy

MEXICO CITY - Forensic evidence indicates a man killed in an early
morning shootout with marines in western Mexico was a leader of the
Knights Templar Cartel who the government reported slain in 2010,
Mexican officials said Sunday.

Authorities were awaiting DNA tests for final confirmation that
they had the body of Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, said an official in
the federal government and one with the Attorney General's Office.
Both agreed to discuss the case only if not quoted by name because
they were not authorized to talk publicly about the investigation.

Moreno's death would be one of the more bizarre twists in Mexico's
assault on drug cartels, in which two others of the country's most
powerful capos have been captured in the last year without a shot
fired.

One of the officials said Sunday's shootout happened near the
farming hub of Apaztingan in the heart of western Michoacan state,
where the Knights Templar have ruled through stealing, killing and
extortion.

Moreno, nicknamed "The Craziest One," would have turned 44 on
Saturday, according to a government birthdate. He led the La
Familia cartel when he supposedly perished in a two-day gunbattle
with federal police in December 2010 in Michoacan, his home state.

No corpse was found then, however. The government of then-President
Felipe Calderon officially declared him dead, saying it had proof,
but some residents of Michoacan had reported seeing Moreno since
then.

Since the earlier death report, his former cartel, La Familia
Michoacana, morphed into the more vicious and powerful Knights
Templar. The cartel under both names preached Moreno's quasi-
religious doctrine and moral code even as it became a major
trafficker of methamphetamine to the U.S.

When federal Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam was recently
asked about the rumor that Moreno was still alive, he said: "We
can't confirm or deny it officially as long as we have no concrete
evidence, and I can tell you that we have nothing."

After the 2010 death report, Moreno reportedly helped build himself
up as folk hero, erecting shrines to himself and to the Knights
Templar, which adopted the Maltese cross as a symbol.

The hunt for him spiked last year as vigilantes, tired of the
cartel's control of the state and government inaction, took up arms
against the Knights Templar, saying they wanted to get the cartel
kingpins. All of the civilian "self-defense" group leaders said
Moreno was alive.

His reported killing comes on the heels of the Feb. 22 capture of
Mexico's most powerful drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who
surrendered peacefully after 13 years on the lam when marines
raided his condo in the Pacific resort city of Mazatlan. Another
other top drug capo, Zetas chief Miguel Angel Trevino, was captured
last summer, also by the Mexican navy's elite troops.

Though Guzman's capture leaked to the press, Mexican authorities
waited several hours before announcing it so they could solidly
confirm they held the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's
largest. They later gave a detailed explanation of how they
fingerprinted him and measured his facial features against
photographs as well as analyzed genetic markers from a DNA swab.
=====================
Mexican marines confiscate six planes in drug bust

Read more: http://www.mizonews.net/world/mexican-marines-confiscate-
six-planes-in-drug-bust/#ixzz2vWDGOx3M

Mexico City: Mexican marines detained three armed individuals and
confiscated six small planes, weapons and vehicles in a drug bust
at a ranch in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, authorities said.

In a joint statement, the government, military, the federal
attorney general's office and the National Security Commission said
these actions were part of a coordinated strategy by federal forces
in Sinaloa.

The operation took place in two communities in the municipality of
Culiacan and began when Mexican marines "surprised an individual
with a rifle, which he used to threaten the security forces".

In his attempt to flee, this person went to a ranch to alert two
other armed individuals, the statement said, adding that the
soldiers subsequently found what appeared to be marijuana and crack
cocaine at the site.

The security forces detained the three suspects at the ranch and
also confiscated six light aircraft and four vehicles, as well as
two rifles, a grenade launcher and four ammunition clips containing
118 rounds of ammunition.

The detainees, weapons and apparent drugs were turned over to
organised crime prosecutors in Mexico City.

On Feb 22, members of an elite marine unit captured Sinaloa drug
cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman, Mexico's most-
wanted fugitive, in Mazatlan, a resort city in Sinaloa.
=============================
Mexican marines confiscate six planes in drug bust
DIFFERENT TUNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Indo-Asian News Service

Mexico City, 9 March: Mexican marines detained three armed
individuals and confiscated six small planes, weapons and vehicles
in a drug bust at a ranch in the northwestern state of Sinaloa,
authorities said.

In a joint statement, the government, military, the federal
attorney general's office and the national security commission said
these actions were part of a coordinated strategy by federal forces
in Sinaloa. http://tinyurl.com/kr583ys

The operation took place in two communities in the municipality of
Culiacan and began when Mexican marines "surprised an individual
with a rifle, which he used to threaten the security forces".

The detainees, weapons and apparent drugs were turned over to
organised crime prosecutors in Mexico city.

On 22 February, members of an elite marine unit captured Sinaloa
drug cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman, Mexico's
most-wanted fugitive, in Mazatlan, a resort city in Sinaloa.
===========================
Immigration detainees continue hunger strike

TACOMA. Wash. (AP) - A hunger strike at the Northwest Detention
Center entered a third day as hundreds of detainees protested their
treatment and called for an end to deportations.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Sunday that about 400
detainees refused to eat Saturday dinner. That morning, ICE said
750 wouldn't eat.

Meanwhile, immigrant-rights activists say a group of more than 20
detainees had been segregated in a small room. They believe it is
in retaliation for leading the hunger strike that started Friday.

Attorney Sandy Restrepo says the wife of a detainee talked briefly
with her husband Sunday. That detainee said he and others were
confined to one cell without bathroom breaks and couldn't move
around.

ICE spokesman Andrew Munoz says he couldn't immediately comment on
those reports.

The center houses nearly 1,300 people being investigated for
possible deportation.

"Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there, eighty
are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to
have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a
warrior, and he will bring the others back."

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=1521817&CategoryId=14091#.
UubETvduoAE.twitter

CHILPANCINGO, Mexico - Hundreds of armed men belonging to community
self-defense groups occupied eight small towns near Chilpancingo,
capital of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, and detained a
dozen suspected extortionists, a spokesperson for the vigilantes
said.

The action was taken due to the "federal government's poor
response" in ensuring the security of the state's inhabitants,
Gonzalo Torres, a coordinator of the Citizen Safety and Justice
System, or SSyJC, organization, said Friday.

The vigilantes said they seized control of the towns, all part of
the municipality of Chilpancingo, because their residents are the
victims of criminal gangs that extort and kidnap business owners.

The SSyJC was founded in Jan. 4, 2013, in the town of Ayutla de los
Libres to combat the criminal outfits and has since extended its
reach to communities located near the cities of Acapulco and
Chilpancingo.

"Our presence here is because citizens in this area asked us to
come, because they're tired of there being extortions, payment of
protection money and kidnappings every day," Torres said.

Roughly 500 inhabitants of the town of Ocotito gathered Friday in
the main square to express their support for the community self-
defense groups in their struggle against the Los Rojos gang, the
former armed wing of the now-defunct Beltran Leyva cartel.

The vigilantes are patrolling the streets and also maintaining
checkpoints on the federal highway linking Chilpancingo and
Acapulco.

Chilpancingo Mayor Mario Moreno acknowledged that the community
self-defense groups already control the towns of Cajeles, Buena
Vista, El Rincon, Mohoneras, Dos Caminos, Carrizal, La Haciendita
and Ocotito, local media reported.

But he said his government was in talks with their leaders and
hoped an agreement could be reached this weekend.

Community self-defense groups and community police forces have also
been formed in more than a dozen of the 113 municipalities in the
neighboring state of Michoacan.

A federal offensive in that western state began Jan. 13 with an
attempt to forcibly disarm militias that arose to defend
communities from the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar)
cartel, but after four people died in a confrontation with
soldiers, the Mexican government changed tack in favor of
cooperation with the vigilantes.

Mistrust persists, however, and the militias, who get financial
backing from business owners tired of paying protection money to
the Templarios, say they will hand over their weapons and stand
down only after the entire cartel leadership is behind bars.

===================
Home » Mexico » Mexico Declares War On Mexicans Declaring War
On Drug Cartels: Army Battles Citizen Militias Battling Gangsters

140117065151-03-mexican-vigilantes-restricted-horizontal-gallery
Self-defense groups head to the village of Nueva Italia in
Michoacan state on Tuesday, January 14, to face the Knights Templar
cartel.

140117ccccc065204-05-mexican-vigilantes-horizontal-gallery
Armed members of a citizens' group stand guard in Paracuaro in
Michoacan state on January 14. Mexican authorities say they have
gained control of 20 municipalities in the region so far.
http://tinyurl.com/m6382md

140117065223-08-mexican-vigilantes-horizontal-gallery
Men from a self-defense group engage in a firefight to flush out
alleged members of the Knights Templar drug cartel from Nueva
Italia on January 12. Critics suggest the vigilante groups contain
some criminals from rival gangs who are using them as a means to
win more territory.

(CNN) - The vigilantes came to violence-torn towns with a simple
pitch: Join us and fight back before the cartel kills you.

For some in the western state of Michoacan, long a flashpoint in
Mexico's drug war, it was an offer they couldn't refuse.

They toted guns and called themselves self-defense groups as they
patrolled the streets, claiming they were forced to fight the
Knights Templar cartel themselves because the state had failed to
protect them.

They took over several communities and sent a clear message to
cartel members and authorities: Keep out.

But this week, the Mexican government stepped in, sending federal
forces to the region and ordering the vigilante groups to lay down
their weapons.

The smoldering situation has become a major problem for President
Enrique Peña Nieto's government, which has vowed to reduce drug
violence.

In some areas, it hasn't gone smoothly, with both sides refusing to
back down in tense standoffs.

Mexican soldiers clashed with self-defense group members Tuesday in
the town of Antunez, killing at least one person. And even as
federal troops patrolled the city of Apatzingan, tensions ran high
after a pharmacy burned down in a suspected arson attack just
blocks away from City Hall on Wednesday.

By Thursday, Mexican authorities said they'd gained control of 20
municipalities in the region. But a top security official said he
couldn't set a date guaranteeing when the state would be safe.

Some vigilante groups have vowed not to hand over their guns until
cartel leaders are captured.

"We want them to go rescue the towns where the people are still
being massacred by organized crime," said Estanislao Beltran, a
spokesman for the self-defense groups. "When there is peace and
security in our state, we will give up our weapons."

Residents, meanwhile, told CNNMexico they're caught in the middle
of spiraling violence that shows no sign of slowing. And some
observers say it's not clear the government crackdown is working.

"Federal authorities, instead of imposing order, instead of
rescuing the cities, they are more like referees," Jose Antonio
Ortega, president of the Citizens Council for Public Safety and
Criminal Justice, told CNNMexico this week. "They are watching the
civil war in Michoacan."

And the situation could have consequences beyond the state's
borders, security analyst Alejandro Hope said. It's possible, he
said, that the phenomenon of vigilante groups could spread.

"It is a real risk," he told CNN en Español. "It is a scenario that
should worry the people in charge of the country's security
policies."

One Michoacan resident, who asked not to be identified out of
concern for his safety, said a self-defense group gave residents
few options but to support them when they swooped into the town of
Tancitaro, where much of the local economy depends on avocado
orchards.

"The words of the self-defense groups were very clear: ‘If you do
not arm yourselves, you could be killed by the Knights Templar.'
This was the central point," he recalled in an interview with
CNNMexico this week.

And even with an increase in government forces in the area, he
said, it's a situation that isn't likely to stop any time soon,
with so many decentralized groups spread across so many parts of
the region.

"We think that this is going to last for months, because there is
not just one person who says, ‘We are going to hand over our
weapons to the Army,'" he said. "People are very afraid. We do not
know who to believe. The self-defense groups tell us one thing, and
the military tells us something else."

But in the meantime, he said, vigilantes have set up roadblocks
around the town.

And the town's church bells have become a signal, he said,
summoning vigilantes to stop cartel members from entering.

Self-defense groups have also surged in parts of the neighboring
state of Guerrero, where government troops have struggled to put a
stop to cartel violence.

"We think the government is very timid, very slow," Sergio Mejia,
the head of an association of restaurant and business owners in
Acapulco, told CNN last year. "If there is no immediate response,
it leaves us no choice but to join the fight."

Several factors in Michoacan have paved the way for vigilante
groups, Hope said - especially the nature of the primary cartel
operating there, the Knights Templar.

"And they tend to be much more involved in extortion, in robbery,
and in different kinds of kidnapping, so they generate a lot more
resistance than a traditional group dedicated to international drug
trafficking," Hope said.

Today's problems started in the state at least a decade ago, said
Julio Hernandez Granados, a former Michoacan government spokesman.

"There were many years of abandonment in many communities," he told
CNN en Español.

That allowed drug cartels to infiltrate, strengthening their grip
on daily life and threatening those who didn't obey.

"These criminal organizations would not subsist if these
circumstances did not exist," Granados said. "With many young
people lacking education, lacking employment opportunities, they
find the only path ... is to work for criminal groups."

Some locals view the vigilantes as heroes. Others see them as
villains and have responded to their arrival by destroying property
and setting vehicles ablaze to create fiery road blockades to stop
them.

In the past year, Hope said, even federal officials have been
"schizophrenic" about how they approach the groups, sometimes
cracking down on them and other times describing them as allies.

Critics suggest the vigilante groups contain some criminals from
rival gangs who are using them as a means to win more territory.

Leaders of the groups have consistently denied such accusations,
saying their only aim is to fight cartels and protect public safety.

But Alfredo Castillo, appointed by the federal government this week
to be a new commissioner heading up security in the state, offered
an ominous warning Thursday. Keep reading

The Cochise County Sheriff's Office be able to duck and cover
faster or make it t0 I-10 QUICKER

http://tinyurl.com/n3g8m3y
The Cochise County Sheriff's Office is hoping a new communications
system will make it much safer for its deputies patrolling one of
the most dangerous parts of the Arizona border.

The department is using an $11 million dollar grant to change the
radio deputies are using.

"It will allow us to communicate with other agencies, it will have
service in remote areas that are considered a dead zone under the
current radio system," said Sheriff Mark Dannels with Cochise
County.

Sheriff Dannels says this upgrade will make sure they know and can
communicate with their deputies while they are tracking cartel
members who are pushing drugs into Arizona.

The sheriff's office has already started upgrading the system and
is hoping the recent visit from the Department of Homeland Security
Secretary will bring more technology to rural areas.

Read more:
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_central_southern_az/other/cochi
se-county-changing-ways-deputies-communicate#ixzz2rXznDFgu

=================
Van with 20 undocumented immigrants rolls over
Here we go again

A van carrying as many as 20 undocumented immigrants rolled over on
Interstate 40 near Flagstaff Friday night after the vehicle swerved
to avoid another car changing lanes, according to the Arizona
Department of Public Safety.

Officials say that 15 passengers were taken to the Flagstaff
Medical Center and six were admitted for treatment at about 7:30
p.m.

The other occupants of the 1979 Ford van fled on foot. DPS officers
remained on the scene near the Winona exit until 9 a.m. Saturday. A
spokesperson said that officers wanted to make sure anyone who ran
off did not need help.

"We don't know how many fled, but a number of them took off on
foot," said Sgt. Gary Phelps.

Phelps said that some of the passengers were Guatemalan and contact
has been made with that country's embassy.

===============================
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2014/01/state-of-mexico-51-executed-
in-first.html

January 24, 2014- At only 24 days of starting the new year, in the
state of Mexico there has been at least 51 murders, mainly
occurring in the metropolitan area of Mexico City. The fires that
occurred on Sunday in the municipality of Tecámac, apparently, were
not related to the "cockroach effect" of Michoacán.

According to a count from Revolución 3.0 based on newspaper
articles, the violence of this entity, governed by Eruviel Ávila
and in the past, Enrique Peña Nieto, has its own war which this
month, would only be the tip of the iceberg.

Almost all of the murders that they've recovered have had ominous
marks as other entities have recorded before.

This trend, moreover, seems to confirm the findings made a few
weeks ago by the Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal
Justice AC (Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y Justicia
Penal A.C.), which warned that it was possible that some
municipalities of the State of Mexico are in an imminent danger of
being a "failed state".

"Municipalities of the State of Mexico, and its suburbs, which have
had an increasingly widespread rate of extortions by organized
crime and homicides on the rise: Neza, Los Reyes La Paz, Chalco and
Valle de Chalco, among others", read the document "Municipalities
of Mexico under the condition of a "failed state".

January 1- 2 men in Tlalnepantla (executed)
January 3- 1 male and female in Chalco (executed)
January 5- 1 male in Chalco (executed and burned)
January 5 - 4 men in Chalco (executed)
January 6- 1 male in Chalco (tortured and executed)
January 6- 1 male in Nezahualcóyotl( tortured , executed and left
on the street )
January 6- 1 male in Toluca (confrontation with Army and Navy,
allegedly belonged to La Familia Michoacana)
January 9 - 1 male in Nezahualcóyotl (murdered inside his vehicle)
January 9 - 2 men in Chalco (shot)
January 9 - 2 men Acolman (tortured and executed)
January 9 - 2 men in Cuautitlán Izcalli (executed and abandoned on
the street)
January 9 - 1 male in Tultitlán (executed and left with a message
from the Sinaloa Cartel)
January 9 - 1 police officer in Naucalpan (assault and crossfire)
January 10 - 1 male in Nezahualcóyotl (executed, wrapped and left
with a message)
January 10 - 5 men in Cuautitlán (4 executed and 1 man found dead)
January 10 - 3 men in Coacalco (killed inside a vehicle)
January 10 - 1 male in Nezahualcoyotl (executed)
January 10 - 1 male in Nicolás Guerrero (throat slit inside a
vehicle)
January 13- 1 female Nezahualcóyotl in (executed and thrown in a
dumpster)
January 13- 1 male in Nezahualcóyotl (executed, leader of a carrier)
January 13 - 1 male in Nezahualcóyotl (executed and tied with wire)
January 13- 1 male in Nezahualcóyotl (murdered inside a taxi)
January 13- 1 male in Chalco (executed and tied by the hands and
feet)
January 14- 1 male in Chimalhuacán (executed on his scooter)
January 14- 1 male in Los Reyes La Paz (beaten and stabbed to death)
January 16- 1 male in Atizapán (persecuted and executed)
January 18- 1 male in San Juan Ixhuatepec (executed)
January 18- 1 female in San Miguel Xalostoc (shot at her business)
January 18- 1 female Nezahualcóyotl man (executed)
January 18- 1 male in Zumpango (killed in a shootout with police)
January 19- 1 male in Naucalpan (burned to death)
January 20- 2 women in Cuautitlan Izcalli (stabbed to death)
January 20- 1 female in Ecatepec (found dead floating in a sewage
canal)
January 21- 3 men in Texcoco (burned to death)
January 22- 1 female in Chalco (tortured and beheaded)

Source: Revolución 3.0
==========
Violence in Michoacan has not yet reached the levels attained in
Chihuahua
Friday, January 24, 2014 | Borderland Beat Reporter un vato
http://tinyurl.com/2crwoad
Diario de Juarez (1-21-2014) By Martin Orquiz
Translated for Borderland Beat by un vato
In reading the following article, there are certain facts one must
keep in mind:

The State of Chihuahua measures 95,543 square miles and has a
population of 3,470,783 (2012).

The State of Michoacan measures 22,625 square miles, with a
population of 4,412,767 (2012).

The State of Mexico (Edomex) is 1,800 square miles, with a
population of 15,680,766 (2013). As reported here in the Borderland
Beat, there have been 51 executions so far this year in Edomex.

The reason I include these statistics is that, calculated on a per
capita basis, or using the standard index of instances per 100,000
population, the numbers in Chihuahua are actually much worse than
the report indicates. I must also point out that the government
officials and public representatives that the reporter quotes
assume that the decrease in the number of homicides in Juarez was
the result of the policies that these officials and representatives
describe.--- un vato

Although the state of Michoacan is now the focus of national and
international attention due to the violence generated by crime and
the rise of citizen self defense groups, it has not yet reached the
levels of violence attained in Chihuahua.

In fact, during the eight year period between 2006 and 2013, the
number of murder victims in the central state (Michoacan) amount to
about a third of the number reported here, according to comparisons
carried out using information from the National Criminal Index
(Incidencia Delictiva Nacional) published by the Executive
Secretariat of the National Public Security System (Secretariado
Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Publica).

Just in 2013 alone, as reported by the organization, an office
within the Secretariat of Governance (Segob; Secretaria de
Gobernacion), 961 murders were reported to the Public Ministry in
that state, while the same source indicates that 1,443 persons were
murdered in Chihuahua.

Meanwhile, information from the State General Prosecutor (FGE;
Fiscalia General del Estado) in the northern zone indicates that
there were 485 murders in Juarez last year.

Along with the deployment of the Federal Police and the Mexican
Army in an attempt to control the situation in Michoacan, the
Federal Government is considering the implementation there of the
strategy of citizen participation established here which, according
to government officials and public representatives, helped decrease
the level of crime, above all in the border city.

During his visit to the border area last week, the Segob's Deputy
Secretary of Prevention and Citizen Participation, Roberto Campa
Cifrian, met with members of the Juarez Board of Security and
Justice (MSJ; Mesa de Seguridad y Justicia), members of the Trust
for Competitiveness and Citizen Safety (Ficosec; Fideicomiso para
la Competividad y Seguridad Ciudadana), the Chihuahua Citizen
Observatory for Prevention, Security and Justice, and other civic
entities to convey that intent.

The main objective, said members of the Juarez groups, is to
permeate Michoacan society with the need to face public safety
problems from a perspective of citizen cooperation without the use
of firearms, as is happening today.

"What has been done here in Juarez has drawn the Federal
government's attention, and they want to take this model and use it
in places like Michoacan and Tamaulipas", explained the director of
MSJ, Jorge Contreras Fornelli. The citizen representative pointed
out that public participation in the resolution of public safety
problems is basic, which is why it is important for for people to
participate in the process of fighting crime.

Although the circumstances in Michoacan are somewhat different than
those that prevailed in Chihuahua, the members of the local social
groups agreed that it is possible, by means of several adaptations,
to begin to work in that state towards a decrease in crime.

Data from Federal entities establishes that, between 2006 and 2013,
there were 5,631 murders in the central Mexican state.

During that same period, there were 16,824 murders committed in
Chihuahua, according to those same entities.

Using those numbers as a base, it can be stated that the number of
persons murdered during that eight year period in Michoacan
represents 33.4% of the victims reported in Chihuahua.

POE officials reported that the sounds lasted until just after 1
a.m. and there were no request for medical personnel or ambulances
to respond to the POE.

http://tinyurl.com/lfuv7s8
The Cochise County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) has issued a statement
on the violence in Agua Prieta, Mexico.

According to the statement, on Saturday, Jan. 18 the CCSO was
contacted by officials from the Douglas Port of Entry regarding a
gun battle with automatic weapons and possible hand grenades in
Agua Prieta.

POE officials reported that the sounds lasted until just after 1
a.m. and there were no request for medical personnel or ambulances
to respond to the POE.

CCSO received information throughout the indicating that a
gun/weapons fight did occur in Agua Prieta and there were several
fatalities in two separate incidents, stated the press release.

It is indicated that this is most likely a cartel related incident
in which they are using massive amounts of ammunition that includes
automatic weapons, 50 caliber weapons and hand grenades. It was
also reported in the statement that the death toll range from eight
to 13 people, none of whom are reported to be U.S. citizens.

"Our information indicates that this is an internal fight within
the confines of the country of Mexico and will most likely stay
there," CCSO Sheriff Mark Dannels said Saturday.

As a proactive and precautionary measure, the CCSO has placed
personnel on a heightened state of alert which will allow for the
deployment of additional personnel should the violence spill over
into the United States via Cochise County international boundaries.

"We remain vigilant in our duty to protect our citizens at all
cost. If in fact there are criminals factions that intend to bring
their issues to the United States," the Sheriff said. "We want to
assure them that we are working closely with local, state and
federal agencies to be prepared as necessary and be successful in
our mission to stop any violence from occurring in our country."

Customs and Border Protection released a statement on Jan. 20, in
regards to the violence in Agua Prieta.

Although CBP has heightened security measures as a precaution at
the Douglas POE, there has been no impact on port operations, the
statement said.
===================
Border Patrol finds 18 illegal immigrants in stash house
http://tinyurl.com/l5pl4t3

SAN BENITO - Eighteen illegal immigrants are in United States
Border Patrol custody after they were found in an illegal stash
house on the outskirts of San Benito, authorities said.

U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, the Cameron County Sheriffs
Department and Border Patrol agents raided a home Thursday
afternoon located on the 2800 block of Calle Maguey where the 18
illegal immigrants had been living, authorities said.

According to U.S. Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley sector spokesman
Danny Tirado, the raid was part of an ongoing investigation.

The immigrants are made up of Mexican and Honduran nationalities.
Tirado said the group could not be broken down by age or gender at
this time.

He also said it is hard to say exactly where they are now because
all of them are at different stages of being processed.

All 18 immigrants are currently in border patrol custody while they
are being processed, he said.

Names are not being disclosed regarding the illegal immigrants or
the potential smugglers at this time. The government agencies will
continue to investigate the case.

=================
381 pounds of marijuana seized at Bridge of the Americas
http://.tinyurl.com/meq8qwc

El Paso, TX (KTSM) - U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of
Field Operations Officers located 381 pounds of marijuana in the
floor and bed of a truck at the Bridge of the Americas
international crossing on Thursday.

CBP Officers made the seizure just after 10:00 a.m. Thursday
morning at the Bridge of the Americas when a 2003 Chevrolet
Silverado driven by 30-year-old Mauricio Rojo-Mares of Cuahtemoc,
Chihuahua, Mexico entered the northbound port.

Border Patrol and CBP Officers initiated a discussion with Rojo-
Mares and selected his vehicle for additional screening. CBP
scanned the truck using a "Buster" density meter and determined
that the truck had high readings consistent with contraband.

A CBP Officer then noticed a bump in the floor of the truck and
pulled back the carpeting revealing a wrapped bundle of marijuana.
Additional inspection revealed 195 marijuana-filled bundled hidden
in the floor and bed of the truck. The estimated street value of
the marijuana is $304,800.

"The discovery was initiated during a sweep of vehicles waiting to
arrive at the primary inspection station," said Hector Mancha, CBP
El Paso Port Director. "These operations are useful because
officers and agents can quickly scan numerous vehicles in a short
period of time."

Rojo-Mares was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement special agents to face charges associated with the
failed smuggling attempt.

Sunday's edition of the Periódico de la República de Arizona
(Arizona Republic) newspaper has outdone itself in demonizing law
enforcement as it elevates criminals with Hispanic surnames. The
latest in the agendized news coverage is a series referred to as an
"investigative report." Hustling with front page coverage that
meanders for three additional full pages, it begins with the saga
of Antonio Elena Rodriguez whose image, the daily tells its
dwindling readers, is on posters, murals and graffiti plastered on
walls in the Mexican border town of Nogales, Sonora. He was shot by
border agents as he was with a pack of thugs hurling deadly rocks
at them. His family contends he was merely walking to the store.

The República article titled, "Wall of silence surrounds killings
by border agents," contends similar victims dot the landscape of
border towns. In this saga, the border agents are the heavies. No
notice is given to those who have been killed in the line of duty.
Click on this link and check the officers who "have lost their
lives serving and protecting the citizens of this great nation,"
going back to 1919. Many are Hispanic. The complete history of
Theodore Newton and George Azrak, BP agents who were abducted and
executed by drug dealers, can be read here
http://tinyurl.com/krvh8kp

During Christmas week in 2007, Seeing Red AZ wrote that George W.
Bush's White House spokesman shut down questions from a reporter
inquiring about a year-end pardon for imprisoned BP agents, Ignacio
Ramos and Jose Compean.

December 2008, just before he left office, we noted that as
president, George W. Bush pardoned or commuted sentences of 32 drug
dealers, 12 thieves, seven embezzlers, an arsonist, an armed bank
robber and eight Thanksgiving turkeys, among many others - but U.S.
Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean remained in prison for
Christmas - serving disproportionately harsh 11- and 12-year prison
sentences, respectively, for shooting at a fleeing illegal alien
drug dealer smuggling nearly 750 pounds of marijuana across the
border.

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton gave the smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-
Davila, full immunity from prosecution for agreeing to serve as the
government's star witness and testify against the border agents.

Grant Woods, who began his erstwhile political career as Chief of
Staff for John McCain is a former AZ Attorney General and dedicated
RINO, who is invariably on the wrong side of issues. Woods
prosecuted U.S. Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett charging him
with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide in
the fatal shooting of an illegal alien during a border altercation.
Corbett, who said he acted in self-defense, was tried twice, with
both cases resulting in a hung jury as Woods did not prove the
case. Debbie Schlussel got it right as she wrote about the
"doctrine of prosecuting border agents."

As to charges in the death of Arizona Border Patrol agent Brian
Terry, we turn to Breitbart News. Relying on much emanating from
the Periódico de la República de Arizona regarding that horrific
murder-- committed with a weapon from the Obama Justice
Department's botched AZ gun-running scheme known as "Operation Fast
and Furious" -- qualifies as a fool's errand.

================
Bond was set at $5 million
Suspect charged in stash house killing
http://tinyurl.com/mfwyu5b

ALTON - An alleged gunman was formally charged Sunday after police
say he fled to Mexico after killing a human stash house operator
amid a botched effort to abduct "a load of illegal aliens."

Bond was set at $5 million for 26-year-old Ricardo Navaete "El
Negro" Lozano - who was arraigned on one count of capital murder -
because he was a "flight risk," having fled to Mexico before being
caught about 2 a.m. Saturday as he tried to re-enter the U.S. at
the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, said Alton police Chief
Enrique Sotelo.

Lozano is accused of firing the shot Nov. 26 that killed Jose Luis
Gonzalez, 31, as he sat in his pickup truck at a gas station on
West Main Avenue in Alton.

Lozano was the sixth person arrested in connection to the killing.
Authorities say those six, and possibly more, planned to follow
Gonzalez to a human stash house, where he was keeping immigrants
who'd entered the country illegally.

Sotelo told The Monitor that he believed their plan was to "rob a
load of illegal aliens."

When Gonzalez realized he was being followed, he pulled into the
parking lot of an Aziz gas station, Sotelo said. The suspects then
blocked Gonzalez from leaving. One man approached the driver's side
of the vehicle, pointed an assault rifle at him and fired a single
shot.

Afterward, Gonzalez tried to drive south on Conway Avenue toward
the Alton Police Department, but he succumbed to his wound before
reaching it.
==============
Bust of stash house nets 10 arrests, marijuana

Maricopa County authorities arrested 10 people and seized 17
bundles containing 358 pounds of marijuana after raiding a stash
house in Phoenix over the weekend.

The Sheriff's Office says detectives obtained a search warrant for
the house after a detective saw bales of marijuana in the backseat
of a vehicle that was then followed to the home.

Four of the people arrested Saturday night were taken into custody
while they were at a nearby store.

The other six were apprehended after they ran from the home and
tried to hide in the neighborhood as officers executed the search
warrant.
=============
Phoenix police: Heroin addict used fake coupons, earning $300,000
yearly to support habit

A woman who told Phoenix police she was a heroin addict has been
arrested on suspicion of making and using fake store coupons,
earning up to $1 million in redemptions, officials said.

Several Valley Target department stores suspected Terry Darcy, 51,
of using fake, homemade coupons, allowing her to get large
quantities of product for free.

A six-week investigation showed business losses of more than
$175,000. Detectives from the Phoenix Police Business and Economic
Stability Team also reported that Darcy may have been operating
since 2008, earning more than $300,000 per year.

On Dec. 13, Phoenix police searched Darcy's hotel room near 19th
and Dunlap avenues. Authorities found master copies of coupons,
stacks of homemade coupons and recently "stolen" products with
values of up to $500, according to police.

Darcy told detectives she had been running her operation for five
years. She also said her heroin addiction costs her $145 a day,
according to police.

Darcy was arrested on suspicion of several felonies, including
possession of forged instruments and trafficking in stolen property.

EDINBURG - Police continue searching for approximately 20 people
who fled after a chase Monday morning in Edinburg.

Edinburg police detained six after the SUV they were riding rolled
into a drainage ditch.

The incident happened in the 1700 block of Raul Longoria Road.
Police said an officer tried to pull over a vehicle that was
speeding through a school zone. The driver refused to stop and the
chase ensued.
===================
WIDOW OF MURDERED RANCHER SEEKS HALT TO CCSO RELEASE OF PUBLIC
RECORDS, INVESTIGATIVE MATERIALS

Sierra Vista, AZ - Sue Krentz, widow of rancher Rob Krentz
[murdered near Douglas, AZ March 2010], has the assistance of
Arizona Voice for Crime Victims attorney Colleen Clase in efforts
to stop the Cochise County Sheriff's Office from complying with
Arizona Public Records law and releasing additional information
from the incomplete investigation of the unsolved murder.

The murder has been repeatedly referred to as an act of one or more
illegal aliens.

Krentz also objects to cameras and recording devices in the
courtroom for the hearing on the question of release of records,
saying her concerns of personal well-being and safety outweigh any
benefit that the public would receive from electronic coverage of
the

The Cochise County Attorneys Office, on behalf of the Sheriff's
Office, has not joined Ms Krentz' application but takes the
position of neutral guardian of the documents, willing to do as the
court requires.

The Cochise County Record and CochiseTV.com plan to record and take
photos during the hearing [Tuesday, Dec 17 10am] in the Sierra
Vista Div I courtroom of Superior Court Judge Charles Irwin and
made the required formal request last week.

Attorneys for the Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Star have
entered appearances in the underlying public records case and argue
[see Motion to Dismiss here] that the Sheriff's Office has a legal
obligation to produce the records, has already produced 300 pages
and 400 photographs without known harm to Mrs Krentz, and that her
complaint does not "specifically demonstrate" how disclosure would
cause harm - "specific risks" associated with "specific disclosure".
Clase, Colleen - attorney

Attorney Colleen Clase, associated with Arizona Voice for Crime
Victims, representing Sue Krentz

Attorney Clase, for Susan Krentz, filed today an objection to
electronic coverage. Judge Irwin is expected to address that
question before the hearing starts.

Reporter Michael Marizco of Fronteras Desk reported
[http://tinyurl.com/kuwz8ua ] on Nov 7 of Krentz' action and noted
that in an interview with Sheriff Mark Dannels a Cochise County
resident, Manuel Corona, was identified as a "person of interest"
in the murder investigation.

Marizco reports that "Corona's son was arrested in August after the
driver of the car he was in rammed a Sierra Vista police officer's
vehicle. He was arrested again with a second man in September on
charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault after allegedly
shooting three people in Elfrida, Ariz" [see AZ Daily Star article]

The Arizona Dept of Corrections website indicates a Manuel Corona,
born 1991, was admitted into the prison system in July 2009 after
sentencing in Cochise County [Case #CR2008-0547] for Burglary in
the 1st Degree with a scheduled release date of December 20, 2013.

Despite 16 disciplinary infractions while in prison Corona was
evidently released early [perhaps on July 24, 2013]. On supervised
probation, the website indicates young Corona as having absconded
on or about September 17, 2013.

Two days later Gadiell Valenzuela-Buitimea, 18, of Sonora, Mexico,
and Manuel Corona, 21, of Sierra Vista, were arrested in connection
with the September 19 shootings in Elfrida. Both men are shown on
Current Inmate Lists as in the CCSO jail at Bisbee, AZ since Sept
20.

Krentz, in her objection to electronic coverage of the hearing on
the public records matter, says that among her concerns is possible
retaliation by persons whose names may be mentioned during the
proceedings. Krentz says she does not know what information has
already been released by the CCSO as the result of public records
requests by multiple media outlets.
===========

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Border Patrol agents will be allowed to continue using deadly force against rock-throwers, the chief of the agency said, despite the recommendation of a government-commissioned review to end the practice.

The Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit group that advises law enforcement agencies, recommended that the Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, stop the use of deadly force against rock throwers and assailants in vehicles, Border Patrol Chief Mike Fisher said.

CBP rejected both recommendations, which were part of a broader internal review of the agency's use-of-force policies and practices that began last year. The measures were not included in a revised policy announced on Sept. 25 that calls for more training and better record-keeping.

CBP considered the proposed curbs "very restrictive," Fisher told The Associated Press.

Under current policy, agents can use deadly force if they have a reasonable belief that their lives or the lives of others are in danger.

"We shouldn't have carve-outs in our policy and say, except for this, except for that," Fisher said. "Just to say that you shouldn't shoot at rock-throwers or vehicles for us, in our environment, was very problematic and could potentially put Border Patrol agents in danger."

NIF Needs to Drop Amnesty Push and Stand Up for American Kids
Board Member Reconfirms that Illegal Aliens Commit Child Identity
Theft

National Immigration Forum (NIF) board member and former Utah
Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has once again acknowledged that
illegal aliens commit child identity theft.

Shurtleff's acknowledgement came in a tweet that he sent in
response to other tweets commenting on an earlier blog of mine:
However, unlike in 2005 when Shurtleff said he would prosecute and
deport illegal aliens committing child identity theft, as an NIF
board member he now advocates giving them legal status and amnesty
for their crimes so they will stop stealing the identities of
American children.

It would appear that both Shurtleff and the National Immigration
Forum lack compassion for the victims of illegal alien identity
theft, otherwise their focus would be on helping innocent American
kids and their families undo the harm done to them rather than
sacrificing them for the benefit of illegal aliens.

The National Immigration Forum needs to stand up for American kids.
It knows that illegal aliens are committing rampant child identity
theft and it knows that innocent American children are suffering
terrible harm at the hands of illegal aliens using their identities
because one of its board members (Shurtleff) has said so.

The NIF should also know that it is wrong to put the interests of
illegal aliens ahead of the interests of American children and it
should further know that it would be wrong to reward illegal aliens
with legal status after the harm they have done to innocent
American children and their families.

Hopefully, the NIF will drop its push for amnesty for child
identity thieves. And hopefully it will encourage Congress to pass
legislation designed to (1) protect American children from illegal
alien employment-related identity theft; (2) help American families
recover their children's identities; and (3) to undo the terrible
harm that illegal aliens have caused these American families.

Oh, and what about the mortgage fraud bust mentioned in Shurtleff's
tweet? Well that certainly wasn't the focus of Shurtleff's press
conference in 2005. According to the Deseret News, Shurtleff was
clearly taking credit for busting illegal aliens who were using the
Social Security numbers of 5,000 Utah children under age 18 to get
jobs, which was just the tip of the iceberg, since only the Social
Security numbers of kids on public assistance were checked. The
Deseret News story included the following:

But Bailey's parents, Scott and Kelly Smith, found out their
daughter's identity had been compromised after the Utah Department
of Workforce Services found an Orem restaurant employee with
Bailey's Social Security number. Either someone had stolen her
identity or the 5-year-old had been commuting from Ogden to Orem
every day without her parents' knowledge. ...

According to the Utah Attorney General's Office, other victims
are an 8-year-old Orem boy who appears to own a cleaning company
and works as a prep cook at two upscale Salt Lake restaurants. An
11-year-old Salt Lake boy appears to work for an express air
freight company, authorities found. ...

The Social Security Administration initiated the current
investigation when it alerted state officials about a problem in
Utah with compromised Social Security numbers.

The ensuing investigation by the Identity Theft Task Force's
Operation Protect the Children turned up at least 1,800 forged
Social Security numbers assigned to Utah children 12 or under. Lt.
Kevin Pepper, an investigator with the task force, said 3,200
victims fell between the ages of 13 and 18 years old.

Ninety percent of the cases involve illegal aliens who use the
identities to find work, Ingleby [Office of the Inspector General,
Social Security Administration] said.

http://tinyurl.com/ldxuvlg
Immigration protest planned for Monday in Phoenix
Posted: Oct 14, 2013 4:48 AM Updated: Oct 14, 2013 1:14 PM
Posted by Rachel Fleming - email
Posted by Steve Stout - email
Posted by Phil Benson - email
PHOENIX (AP) -

Immigration rights activists are hoping to attract hundreds of
people to a protest at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
office in Phoenix.

Carlos Garcia of Puente Arizona says the Monday protest is aimed at
stopping deportations for the day.

Most immigration proceedings are on hold during the partial federal
government shutdown. However, the government continues to deport
people.

Garcia acknowledges that protesters could be arrested.

However, the ICE office where the protest is planned is closed
Monday. Many federal offices are closed due to the federal Columbus
Day holiday.

ICE could not be reached for comment due to the shutdown.

==================
BREAKING: Protestors Chain Together in Entrance to Eloy Detention
Center

Just now, protestors chained themselves in front of the Eloy
Detention Center. Their action calls on the President to stop
deportations and the criminalization of immigrants. Through civil
disobedience they say they're exposing the inhumane imprisonment at
the center of current immigration policy and the needless
warehousing of the undocumented who could benefit from reform.

Many of those inside Eloy have committed no major offense and
instead are victims of Congress' 34,000 minimum detention bed
mandate and the profiling of Sheriffs like Arpaio and Border Patrol
required to fulfill the arbitrary quota.

One of the protestors, 16 year old Sandy Estrada of Phoenix, AZ,
whose brother has been detained in Eloy for nearly a year after
being arrested on work-related charges, says, "I'm doing this to
show my brother and all the other people inside that we support
them and we will do what it takes to get them out. I want the
President to know that everyone deserves to be with their families
and that he can stop our pain."

"Behind these walls are thousands taken far away from their
families and the better lives they came here for." explains Tomas
Martinez of GLAHR in Atlanta, GA. "For Washington, detainees are
just a number, but for us the people inside Eloy are our sisters
and brothers. We want our families at home with us not behind bars
just so some politician can look tough."

Specifically, the Eloy Detention Center, is one of the largest in
the country. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)-owned
facility has the capacity to jail 1,600 workers, fathers, and
daughters in what has become notoriously horrendous conditions. It
has recently made headlines after two detainees committed suicide
last March and more recently when the company placed dream-eligible
youth who reentered the country as an act of protest, into solitary
confinement before their release.

The morning action is part of the #Not1More Deportation campaign
that urges the President to be more than a bystander in the
immigration debate and use his authority to provide immediate
relief by stopping deportations. Event organizers say that more
protests of the kind should be expected until the President grants
relief.

On Friday, campaign participants closed Operation Streamline in
Tucson through similar civil disobedience. Later today, the
Phoenix-based Puente Movement is planning a rally at noon Margaret
T. Hance Park (3rd street and Morseland) and march to "shut down"
the district ICE office (2035 N. Central Ave).

===============================
Former Border Patrol Agents Warn Citizens About Obama Immigration
Scam - OpEd
http://tinyurl.com/o9fr4qr

While the Obama administration barricaded a World War II memorial
in order to deny veterans access to its National Mall location in
Washington D.C., illegal aliens and their supporters, including
several Democrat lawmakers, were permitted to hold a rally
demanding rights for illegal immigrants, according to an Examiner
news story on Oct. 10, 2013.

The press, the elite political establishment and President Barack
Obama and his administration are subjecting the American people to
a steady and intense diet of political deception concerning
Immigration reform, officials from the National Association of
Former Border Patrol Officers said on Friday.

The group of retired law enforcement officers claim that the
purpose of the Obama minions' deception is to convince U.S.
citizens that illegal aliens are not a problem and that immigration
laws are designed to provide a pathway to citizenship for aliens
whose first act in the U.S. was violating the nation's laws.

"You have even been told that the border is safer than it has ever
been. None of what the press, the political elite or the
administration is telling you is true," said NAFBPO officials.

About one year ago, the Naco Border Patrol Station, in eastern
Arizona, was renamed for Agent Brian Terry, who was murdered by
weapons allegedly provided to drug cartels by the Obama
administration. Since then, in Cochise County, Ariz., the law
enforcement community and America lost Border Patrol Agent Nicholas
Ivey and Sheriff Larry Dever.

"Within this time frame there was a Congressional Border tour
sponsored by our group, NAFBPO. Field agents reported to the
delegation that 30% of the Border was unpatrolled on a monthly
basis and they estimated that they were apprehending less than 3%
of what they knew was crossing the border illegally in the 70% of
the border that they did patrol," said the retired border agents.

Prior to that operation, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet
Napolitano and her subordinates would regularly claim that Border
Patrol Tucson Sector was apprehending or turning back south 3 out
of 4 illegal aliens that they knew crossed the border, according to
NAFBPO.

However, when the newly purchased Vadar Radar system was used 24/7
for an extended period of time, 7533 illegal crossers were counted
and 410 were apprehended, of which 52 or 35% were drug smugglers.
The actual metric was not 75% apprehended, but 5.4% apprehended.
And the Homeland Security Secretary boasted about Vadar being 100%
accurate, according to the former border officers.

"Since 2006, the annual percentage of illegal aliens apprehended
that were reported in Tucson Sector has varied between 15-30% that
al-ready have criminal records inside the United States.
Charitably, that means that in the last 8 years approximately 4
million criminal aliens may have come into the United States
illegally through Tucson Sector alone. The truth is that nobody
knows," stated the organization's officials.

"These criminal aliens live among us and the first step in any
meaningful Immigration reform is to identify, process and remove
every single deportable alien in prison, in jail or on probation
for the commission of a crime in the United States and this must
take place before any other part of the Immigration reform
situation is considered," they said.
About Jim Kouri
Jim Kouri, CPP, formerly Fifth Vice-President, is currently a Board
Member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, an editor
for ConservativeBase.com, and he's a columnist for Examiner.com. In
addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio
affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com). Kouri also serves as political
advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.
View all posts by Jim Kouri →
==================
Water stations for border-crossers sprout in harsh S. Texas terrain
http://tinyurl.com/my4uzm3
BROOKS COUNTY, Texas - For the first time, an aid group is
deploying water stations in the South Texas brush in an effort to
prevent migrant deaths, and finding creative ways to work with
private ranchers who don't usually fling the gates wide for
outsiders.

It's a fledgling movement - only two stations are in place so far -
but the rising interest from human rights groups is another
indicator of the mounting death toll.

It is also a sign of Brooks County's emergence as a kind of new
Sonoran Desert, where water stations have long been a fixture in
southern Arizona. Brooks County is southwest of Corpus Christi,
Texas.

As migration patterns and U.S. border enforcement strategies have
changed, the migrant trail has shifted, too, leading them on foot
through the county's barren, 944 square miles of private ranches to
avoid the Border Patrol checkpoint south of Falfurrias, Texas.

Nearly 80 bodies have been recovered in the county in 2013,
approaching the record 129 in 2012. In southern Arizona, the Pima
County Medical Examiner's Office, which records most migrant deaths
in the state, lists 74 bodies recovered this year.

Deaths of undocumented immigrants near the U.S.-Mexico border have
increased even as indicators of overall immigration dipped with the
U.S. recession. Most deaths are attributed to dehydration and
exposure.

"We want to set up water stations countywide so we don't have the
deaths," said Eddie Canales, founder of the new South Texas Human
Rights Center and a director of the National Network for Immigrant
and Refugee Rights.

South Texas, like Arizona, has remote terrain that's hard to
navigate and hard to reach, even on four-wheel drive vehicles. But
some of the biggest obstacles for aid groups aren't physical.

"Ranchers are a little more skittish about the politics of this
than are federal and state land managers in Arizona," said Robin
Hoover, a Disciples of Christ church pastor and activist with a
focus on reducing border deaths.

"They're real pro-law-enforcement, but there's also some sentiment
that, well, it doesn't matter, nobody deserves to die."
PHOTO:

Politics aside, while some ranchers still run cattle, the big
moneymaker now is live game, so migration poses a number of
problems for business.

Landowners worry about encounters between their guests and the
brush guides who lead migrants, who may be affiliated with
transnational gangs and may be armed. Water stations could be seen
as encouraging migration, which leads to torn-down fences and
escaped game and livestock. And some land managers are wary of
giving humanitarian groups free rein on their property, because it
is easy to get lost, radio and cellphone reception is poor to
nonexistent, and bullets fly during hunting season.

"We're already in a position of liability. Why do we want to add on
to that?" said Susan Durham, director of the South Texans' Property
Rights Association. The group has advocated for national
immigration reform with a strong border security component.

Yet Canales has found a way to make inroads where others, including
Hoover, failed: He delivers the equipment to the ranch gate, then
lets the rancher deploy it. The water station is a 55-gallon
plastic barrel filled with gallon water jugs, with a tall blue
pennant to make it easy to spot above the scrub brush. Canales or
another volunteer returns to the ranch as needed to drop off more
water jugs for restocking.

Durham's husband, LaVoyger Durham, who manages the sprawling,
13,000-acre El Tule ranch, said he was the first to accept the
arrangement. The remains of at least seven people have been
recovered there since 2011, according to sheriff's reports. Durham
said he's seen 25 discovered in his 23 years there.

He would rather have more robust security to stem the flow of
migration - double or triple the border wall, he says - but in the
meantime he doesn't want to see anyone die on the ranch. He said
other ranchers questioned him, taking a "let 'em die" stance.

"I think they were scared I was helping these illegals become
illegal," he said. "I shut them up and said, 'Look ... I'm only a
human being and for the past two years I've been trying to expose
the killing fields of South Texas.'"

Durham believes the water stations will catch on. Half of the water
in his station - about three gallons - was consumed in the first
month, which for a large part was overcast and rainy. But Texas
still is deep in drought.

Canales said he is making headway. He was to meet with the owner of
one of the county's largest ranches Monday.

"It does take relationship-building," he said. "You have to build
that confidence with people. I think eventually it will come."

He hopes to officially launch the South Texas Human Rights Center
in a building near the Brooks County Courthouse in Falfurrias in
early November and is taking donations through his website.

(Mark Collette is a reporter for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
Reach him at collettem@caller.com.)

http://tinyurl.com/nuwwuxt

Deportees kill five in Tijuana
Three men living in river canal alleged to have murdered multiple
people

A group of three men, who were deported from the United States this
year after serving prison time, have been arrested in connection
with five Tijuana homicides. The men, Bricio Alberto Marroquín,
Francisco Álvarez Guerrero, and Víctor Manuel Domínguez Ramírez,
were arrested on Thursday, July 11.

According to authorities, the men had been living in the Río
Tijuana canal and selling methamphetamine. The men are all from
southern Mexico and are alleged to have killed four men and one
woman in recent months. The victims are all believed to have lived
in the canal as well.

Local governments have pleaded with U.S. law enforcement for years
for notification when deporting dangerous criminals back to Mexico.

====================
Tijuana techie murdered for lack of skills
0
Promised and failed to deliver pirated internet

By T.B. Beaudeau, July 13, 2013

http://tinyurl.com/oxcxt5a

Police captured a man who reportedly confessed to murdering a TJ
techie after he failed to properly hook up the killer and his four-
man crew to the red mundial (internet) in Tijuana.

The alleged killer, David Ortiz González (aka "El Chaky Marrano”),
a 36-year-old native of El Grullo, Jalisco, admitted to taking part
in the death of Luis Fernández Hidalgo, whose body was found in a
vacant lot in Playas de Tijuana on June 21.

González was a deportee from the United States and had served
prison time there for armed robbery, according to reports. Police
found the him after a protracted manhunt.

The victim, Hidalgo, had bragged of his computer prowess while
smoking crystal meth with the crew and told the group he knew a lot
about computer systems and would hook them up for pirated service
for a one-time 50-dollar fee, assuring them that they would never
have to pay for internet access.

Hidalgo showed up with some software at a later meeting, attempted
to install it, but failed to get it operating, much to the ire of
his clients. They reportedly demanded their money back, but Hidalgo
hesitated, claiming he needed more time.

Hidalgo reportedly came back to the residence on June 20 to do a
system reboot but was knocked down and kicked repeatedly by the
five men until he was unconscious. Once he was out cold, González
put a plastic bag over the Hidalgo's head until he died.

Later on, the group bound Hidalgo with string, wrapped him in a
blanket, and dumped the body at a beachside lot in Playas, driving
the body there in Hidalgo’s white Ford Mustang.

González later attempted to spray-paint the Mustang black, thinking
the car would not be identified. Investigators found a ball of
twine in the trunk of the Mustang that matched the twine used to
tie up Hidalgo.

===============
Border Patrol Considers Razor Wire Fencing in Arizona

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2013/07/12/border-
patrol-considers-razor-wire-fencing-in-arizona/#ixzz2Yx6eDJcw

In a move that could be viewed as further militarization of the
border, the Border Patrol is considering putting concertina wire
along the fence to the east and west of downtown Nogales, Arizona.

The idea, which has generated a degree of anger from the Arizona
town’s city council, would add another sector of the border fence
to be covered in the razor-sharp wire. Currently the fence
separating San Diego and Tijuana is the only section to have
concertina wire covering its top portion.

The Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector “is considering a proposed
deployment of concertina wire in the Nogales area,” spokesman Brent
Cagen wrote in an email to the Nogales International newspaper. The
proposal, however, is still under review and “specifics concerning
this proposal are unavailable at this time.”

Local politicians and residents are angry with the proposal,
claiming that they are concerned with the dangers of razor wire,
the injuries that might be sustained by people trying to climb it
and the image that it portrays.

“It kind of gives me an image of Hitler coming back,” said
Councilman John Doyle. “I think that it’s a little too strong. If
somebody gets tangled up there, their eyes go or their legs get
cut.”

Despite the protests, the proposal to put concertina wire on
Arizona’s border fencing is nothing new. In 2010, then-Rep.
Gabrielle Giffords requested a border barrier in Nogales that would
“incorporate double-wall fencing, concertina wire... and vehicle
ditches” from the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security. This
plan, however, was pulled off and when the fence was originally
constructed in 2011 it consisted of a single-layer, bollard-style
fence without concertina wire
===================
Border Patrol agents find seven dead, rescue eight in July
http://tinyurl.com/ocnkzlq
EDINBURG, Texas – As summer temperatures continue to climb, so too
does the number of illegal immigrants who succumb to the elements
and die. So far in July, U.S. Border agents from the Rio Grande
Valley Sector have found the remains of seven illegal immigrants,
who perished in the rugged ranchlands of South Texas, and rescued
eight others.

The deceased individuals were found in separate incidents, five in
Brooks County, one in Kenedy County and one in Jim Wells County.
Montejo 300x250 - SWAT

The rescues occurred Wednesday evening at the Falfurrias Checkpoint
on U.S. Highway 281 North, when agents saved the lives of eight
illegal immigrants, who were locked inside a refrigerated truck
with no means of escape.

Immigrants are often unaware of the extreme danger they face when
attempting to illegally enter the United States. The risk of
drowning while crossing the Rio Grande or other body of water is
significantly high. Additionally, extreme heat, combined with
rugged terrain, can rapidly cause an individual to become
distressed and die from dehydration or another heat-related illness.

As temperatures soar, people are urged not to put their lives at
risk by attempting to illegally enter the United States or by
circumventing a checkpoint. U.S. Border Patrol agents are well-
trained in search-and-rescue techniques and do their utmost to save
the lives of those in need. Unfortunately, however, so far for
fiscal year 2013, which began Oct. 1, 2012, agents have found the
remains of nearly 110 illegal immigrants, an increase of about 40
percent over the same time period for the previous fiscal year.
Additionally, rescues jumped from more than 170 to nearly 430 in
that same time period, an increase of more than 145 percent.

To report suspicious activity, call the Rio Grande Valley Border
Patrol Sector’s toll-free telephone number at 800-863-9382.
=====================
Border Patrols Agents Found More Human Remains in Brooks County

http://tinyurl.com/pcoboqm

BROOKS COUNTY - Deputies in Brooks County now have information on
39 illegal immigrants who died in the brush. The information is
filed in the county's binder of bodies for 2013. U.S. Border Patrol
agents discovered the latest human remains, five of them, last
week. Deputies said four of the bodies were intact and are
identifiable. The skeletal remains of the fifth person will have to
be sent off for DNA testing.

The count of dead bodies discovered in remote areas of Brooks
County is on the rise compared to last year. CHANNEL 5 NEWS is
keeping tabs on the count. Thirty-two bodies were discovered from
January 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012. In the month of July 2012, 25
more bodies were discovered.

U.S. Border Patrol agents said a body of an illegal immigrant was
discovered in Kenedy County and another in Jim Wells County.

Eight other illegal immigrants were rescused Wednesday near the
Falfurrias checkpoint along Highway 281. They were locked inside a
refrigerated truck with no way to escape.

To report suspicious activity, call the Rio Grande Valley Border
Patrol Sector's toll-free telephone number at 800-863-9382 To take
a closer look at the body count of illegal immigrants in South
Texas during 2012, visit the Back to Brooks County Web page.
--------------------
=============
Drug Smugglers Cut Storm Drain Gate

http://tinyurl.com/qywd3gl
HIDALGO - Police are keeping a close eye on the storm drain tunnels
running under Hidalgo. Smugglers cut through an iron gate covering
one of the drains.
HIDALGO - Police are keeping a close eye on the storm drain tunnels
running under Hidalgo. Smugglers cut through an iron gate covering
one of the drains.

Border Patrol agents found the opening this week next to the river.
The tunnel runs under the border wall and leads to a parking lot
next to a flea market.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS first reported on how smugglers used the tunnels in
2006. The drain cover was also cut through then.

Agents welded the re-bar Monday. The next day, Border Patrol agents
and Hidalgo police found 83 pounds of meth nearby.

Hidalgo Police Chief Rodolfo Espinoza said they suspect the
smugglers' Plan A was botched Monday, so they backpacked with the
drugs brush instead.

"Normally, when they use the storm drain, the packages are all
muddied up. In this case, the packages were clean," he explained.

The police chief told us they don't know how long that tunnel was
open.
Border Patrol agents found the opening this week next to the river.
The tunnel runs under the border wall and leads to a parking lot
next to a flea market.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS first reported on how smugglers used the tunnels in
2006. The drain cover was also cut through then.

Agents welded the re-bar Monday. The next day, Border Patrol agents
and Hidalgo police found 83 pounds of meth nearby.

Hidalgo Police Chief Rodolfo Espinoza said they suspect the
smugglers' Plan A was botched Monday, so they backpacked with the
drugs brush instead.

"Normally, when they use the storm drain, the packages are all
muddied up. In this case, the packages were clean," he explained.

The police chief told us they don't know how long that tunnel was
open.

By JB Miller For the Nogales International | Posted 12 months ago
http://tinyurl.com/nhumyy2

A hiker in the Madera Canyon area found three assault rifles in a
black trash bag one mile north of Old Baldy Trail.

After receiving a report of the discovery on Wednesday, June 20,
the Pima County Sheriff's Office determined that the rifles were
found in Santa Cruz County, and notified the local sheriff's office.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff's deputies then went to the site and
recovered what turned out to be a stash of AK-47 assault rifles.

Lt. Raoul Rodriguez said the rifles were "badly rusted" and had
"obviously been there for quite some time." Four rifle magazines
were also recovered.

Rodriguez said the weapons were taken to the sheriff's office and
secured.
========

http://tinyurl.com/od924pj
IRS sent $46 million in tax refunds to an Atlanta address
Posted: Jun 24, 2013 4:40 PM Updated: Jun 25, 2013 4:35 AM
By Jeff Chirico - email

ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -

The Internal Revenue Service is under fire again for sending $46.3
million dollars in tax refunds to one address in Atlanta, according
to a 2012 Treasury Inspector General audit now gaining renewed
attention through social media.

The audit report blamed IRS management for ignoring a tax loophole
that allowed individuals to defraud the government.

"It's ludicrous," said Darrell Bell of Marietta. "How do you miss
something like that? That's crazy."

Auditors reviewed how the IRS gives individual tax identification
numbers (ITIN) to individuals who are not eligible for social
security numbers. ITINs are supposed to be assigned to nonresidents
or residents who are not authorized to work in the United States.
But the audit found the verification process for ITIN applications
was lax, tax fraud was undetectable and managers eliminated
processes that weeded out successful processes used to identify
potential fraud patterns and schemes. Complaints by IRS employees
alleged management removed those processes to increase the volume
of applications that can be processed.

The report reads, "there is no assurance that ITINs are not being
assigned to individuals submitting questionable applications."

The ITINs allow immigrants to file tax returns. Recent reports show
some immigrants have received tax refunds by fraudulently claiming
child tax credits.

In the most egregious case, the IRS sent 23,994 tax refunds
totaling $46,378,040 to one address in Atlanta. The report did not
reveal the address.

Of the ten most frequently used addresses for ITIN tax refunds,
four are in Atlanta.

According to a 2012 letter written by IRS Wage and Investment
Division Commissioner, Peggy Bogadi, the service is addressing the
problem and implementing new procedures.

http://tinyurl.com/omb3ook
PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona is in the grips of a dangerous heat wave
that could send temperatures soaring to 118 degrees by the weekend
in Phoenix, creating ripe conditions for wildfires and forcing the
Border Patrol to ramp up efforts to rescue immigrants succumbing to
the stifling heat while crossing the border.

The temperature in Phoenix is expected to climb through Saturday,
when forecasters say the heat could set a new record. The record
high for the same date in June is 117 degrees set in 1994, said
meteorologist Mark O'Malley of the National Weather Service in
Phoenix. The forecast for this coming Saturday currently is for 118
degrees.

The heat wave comes with a strong high-pressure system expected to
build over the entire western U.S. and which will be centered over
northern Arizona at its peak on Friday, the weather service says.

O'Malley said temperatures will soar through the week across
Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Utah and into parts of
Wyoming and Idaho, where forecasters are calling for triple-digit
heat in the Boise area through the weekend.

Officials say extra personnel have been added to the Border
Patrol's Search, Trauma, and Rescue unit to assist with increasing
numbers of rescues throughout the summer months as migrants
crossing rugged terrain succumb to heat, exhaustion and
dehydration. Several bodies of immigrants have been found in the
last week in Arizona, and agents in the Tucson sector rescued more
than 170 people from the desert during a 30-day stretch in May and
June.

"June is the deadliest month for migrants in Arizona. It is
consistently the month where most migrants die here," said Border
Patrol spokesman Andy Adame. "Absolutely it's a crime to enter the
United States illegally, but the penalty for that crime shouldn't
be death."

O'Malley said the weather system won't help with wildfires - either
ones already burning or new ones that might pop up.

"Given we're going to have low humidity and extremely hot
temperatures, and everything is already dry out there, for any fire
that is ongoing or new ones that start, this could be very
problematic," he said.

Temperatures in mountainous northern Arizona also are expected to
approach all-time highs. The forecast in Sedona calls for the
temperature to hit just one degree under the June 1990 and July
1995 records of 110 degrees.

Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca contributed to this report
from Flagstaff.

THE WAR SOUTH OF I-10

SUBJECT: Agency Assist - Drug Seizure (345 lbs.) - 16 Arrests
LOCATION: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On February 5, 2013, a BLM law enforcement
ranger from the Phoenix District was conducting a helicopter patrol
in support of Operation Reclaim Our Arizona Monuments (ROAM). At
approximately 1400 hours, the helicopter received an emergency call
for assistance from National Park Service (NPS) law enforcement
rangers at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. A single NPS ranger
conducting a patrol in a remote wilderness area, approximately 12
miles south of the NPS/BLM boundary, encountered a large group of
suspected contraband smugglers. The nearest ground support was more
than an hour away. The helicopter arrived at the scene and the BLM
ranger observed the NPS ranger attempting to detain three male. At
least a dozen additional persons were attempting to conceal
themselves in the surrounding area. The helicopter was able to land
nearby and the BLM ranger disembarked to assist. Working together,
the two rangers were able to detain 16 suspects. Four others fled
up a steep mountain side. The two rangers maintained a defensive
position, with the helicopter providing aerial support, until
additional NPS units arrived at 1530 hours. The area was searched
and six large packs of suspected marijuana, five communal food
packs and three cell phones were found. Darkness forced the rangers
to break off the search and begin a three-mile hike to the nearest
road. The six packs of suspected marijuana were secured as
evidence. Interviews conducted with the apprehended suspects
revealed they were citizens of multiple Central American countries
including Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico and were illegally in the
United States. The suspects also indicated there were as many as
six additional contraband packs remaining at the scene. NPS rangers
returned to the scene the following morning and after an exhaustive
search were only able to locate one additional pack of marijuana.
They also discovered that one of the communal food packs had been
removed from the area. It is suspected the individuals who were
seen fleeing the area returned under cover of darkness, and removed
the missing packs. Seven total packs were seized and taken to the
Border Patrol Ajo Station for processing. They were found to
contain 345.35 pounds of processed marijuana, having an estimated
street value of $276,280. The suspects are being held for
prosecution and removal proceedings

SUBJECT: Operation Roam - Smuggling Scouts - Ammunition Seized
LOCATION: Ironwood Forest National Monument

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On February 6, 2013, at approximately 0300
hours, a BLM Gila District ranger K9 team and detailed rangers
assigned to Operation Reclaim our Arizona Monuments (ROAM) were on
patrol in the Ironwood Forest National Monument when they were
alerted to four persons carrying large bundles of suspected
marijuana in a remote area of the Monument. The rangers hiked to
and searched the area the suspects were last seen. The K9 located
four large camouflaged backpacks. The packs contained approximately
200 pounds of food and supplies, including energy drinks and
propane bottles. Also found were two socks filled with 389 rounds
7.62X39 ammunition and 40 rounds of 9mm ammunition. Evidence
indicates the four were transporting supplies to remote scouting
locations within the Monument. Despite an exhaustive search in the
dark in remote difficult terrain, no suspects could be located. The
supplies were hiked out of the area by rangers. The ammunition was
stored as evidence. This particular area has seen a recent increase
in activity involving armed suspects over the last several weeks.

SUBJECT: Operation ROAM - Drug Seizure - 69 lbs.
LOCATION: Sonoran Desert National Monument

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On February 5, at 2320 hours, BLM law
enforcement rangers patrolling the Sonoran Desert National Monument
in conjunction with Operation Reclaim Our Arizona Monuments (ROAM)
responded to intelligence regarding suspicious activity. BLM
rangers and Pinal County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) deputies deployed
on foot near Interstate 8 in an attempt to apprehend two suspects
seen hiding in the brush near a milepost on the north side of the
highway. Once the officers arrived, the suspects fled on foot.
Officers seized three bundles of suspected marijuana totaling 69
pounds, with an estimated street value of $55,200. An extensive
search by numerous officers and a BLM K-9 was conducted. No
suspects were apprehended. The suspected marijuana was seized as
evidence by PCSO. All of the agencies are partners in the Alliance
to Combat Transnational Threats (ACTT) and participate in regular
planning, coordination and cooperation for joint operations in this
area.

SUBJECT: Sentencing - Operation ROAM
LOCATION: Ironwood Forest National Monument

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On January 28, 2013, Vanessa Forsythe, 35, of
Tucson was sentenced by United States District Judge David C. Bury
to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons for a term of 5
years. Forsythe pleaded guilty on October 25, 2012, to possession
with the intent to distribute 189 kilograms of marijuana. This case
and prosecution were the result of an arrest and investigation by
BLM Gila District and California Desert District law enforcement
rangers who were working in support of Operation Reclaim Our
Arizona Monuments (ROAM) on May 2, 2012. Forsythe was the driver of
a vehicle that was transporting marijuana through the Ironwood
Forest National Monument. At the time of her arrest Forsythe had a
.45-caliber handgun in her possession.

SUBJECT: Sentencing

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On Jan. 28, 2013, Kenneth Brian Cobb, 46, of
Scottsdale was sentenced by United States District Judge Roslyn O.
Silver to five years supervised probation with eight months of
weekend incarceration and was ordered to pay $32,000 in
restitution. Cobb pleaded guilty on Sept. 10, 2012, to theft of
government property and a violation of the Endangered Species Act.
Cobb admitted that between January 1 and February 28, 2010, he took
eight saguaro cactuses from public land managed by the BLM near
Wickenburg. He later sold the cactuses for approximately $2,000
each. In addition, on January 21, 2011, Cobb exported two saguaro
cactuses from the United States to Austria without a valid export
permit. The BLM and the Fish and Wildlife Service conducted the
investigation. Seven federal search warrants were served on Cobb's
commercial vehicles, business and residence in June and July 2010.
The official press release from the United States Attorney's Office
for the District of Arizona included the following statement from
United States Attorney John Leonardo:

"The saguaro cactus is a symbol of the Sonoran Desert and Arizona.
Saguaros are protected by state and federal law to avoid their
becoming threatened by the very actions of people like the
defendant. The defendant stole these precious resources from
federal lands and sold them for profit. This prosecution
demonstrates that such activity will not be tolerated."

SUBJECT: Operation ROAM - Drug Seizure - 94.5 lbs. - K9
Utilization
LOCATION: Sonoran Desert National Monument

K9 with drugsSYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On February 3 at approximately
1630 hours, a BLM Phoenix District ranger and detailed rangers,
including a BLM K9 Unit, assigned to Operation Reclaim Our Arizona
Monuments (ROAM) were contacted by a citizen concerning a bundle of
suspected marijuana near where they were camped. Units arrived and
the area was searched. One bundle was found poorly secreted in the
rocks on a hill. A K9 search of the area revealed three more
bundles hidden very well (buried) in the rocks. An exhaustive
search was conducted and no other contraband was located. Border
Patrol agents continued to search for suspects. Rangers transported
the suspected marijuana to a secure evidence facility. The total
weight of the bundles was 94.5 pounds, with an estimated street
value of $75,600. All of the agencies are partners in the Alliance
to Combat Transnational Threats (ACTT) and participate in regular
planning, coordination and cooperation for joint operations in this
area.

SUBJECT: Arrest - Felon in Possession Of Firearm / PCS
LOCATION: La Posa North Long Term Visitor Area - Quartzsite

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On January 23 at approximately 1500 hours, a
BLM Colorado River District ranger and a BLM El Centro Field Office
ranger were on patrol in the La Posa North Long Term Visitor Area
(LTVA) in Quartzsite, Arizona, when they received report of a large
amount trash at a camp on public lands. The rangers learned
occupants of the camp had previously been cited by other BLM
rangers for possession of controlled substances. While speaking
with the camp occupants, several admitted to possessing marijuana.
Additional camp occupants were located nearby in a vehicle. A
consent search of the vehicle was conducted, which yielded several
firearms and drug paraphernalia. The camp occupant in the vehicle
was checked through the Federal Law Enforcement Communication
Center for previous felony convictions. The query results showed
the subject had previous felony convictions for breaking and
entering and drug trafficking, making him a "prohibited possessor"
of firearms. He was placed under arrest and transported to the La
Paz County Sheriff's Office Jail where he was booked on charges of
felon in possession of a firearm and drug paraphernalia. Other
occupants of the camp were cited for possession of a controlled
substance - marijuana. Camp occupants were instructed to remove all
trash and debris from the campsite.

SUBJECT: Annual Pow Wow Event
LOCATION: Quartzsite, Arizona

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On Jan. 23-27, BLM Colorado River District
rangers assisted by BLM rangers from the El Centro Field Office
participated in the annual Pow Wow Detail event in Quartzsite,
Arizona. The Pow Wow is a nationally renowned rock and gem show
held annually. It draws thousands of visitors to this part of
Arizona. Rangers focused on off-highway vehicle (OHV) compliance,
camping and other recreation-related compliance checks. They also
worked on visitor safety and resource protection in the La Posa
Plain Closure Area.

Law enforcement statistics for the event:

Arrests: 4
1 felon in possession of firearm
1 felon in possession drug paraphernalia
2 warrants

Citations: 72

24 Possession Controlled Substance including:
2 felony methamphetamine possession
2 felony prescription drug possession

Warnings: 154

K-9 deployments: 20
1 public K-9 and law enforcement presentation

Visitor Assists: 18

SUBJECT: Agency Assist - Firearms Recovered
LOCATION: Ironwood Forest National Monument

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On January 31, 2013, at approximately 1000
hours, a BLM ranger from the Gila District and a BLM ranger in the
Field Training and Evaluation Program were patrolling the Ironwood
Forest National Monument when they were requested by Silver Bell
Initiative personnel to check an area. Eight persons who were
thought to be a possible "rip crew" had been observed. Two of the
eight suspects were taken into custody. One suspect was wearing
United States Marine Corps type camouflage and the other suspect
was wearing United States Border Patrol uniform type components
without insignias or patches. Rangers and a Border Patrol agent
canvassed the area and found two handguns. The first was a Smith
and Wesson Sigma .40-caliber with obliterated serial numbers and a
full magazine. The second was a Springfield Armory 1911 .45-caliber
with a full magazine, and a round in the chamber. Also found were
three additional loaded .45-caliber magazines and five backpacks
containing food and drinks. While following foot sign north from
the other handgun locations, an AK-47-style machine pistol loaded
with a full magazine along with one round in the chamber was
located. This firearm appeared to have been discarded prior to this
incident, as it was covered with surface rust and had been in place
for some time.

The handguns and evidence recovered were transferred to the custody
of the Tucson Border Patrol Station by BLM rangers and were turned
over to the Tucson Sector Evidence Collection Team for further
processing. The AK-47 machine pistol was retained by BLM and logged
into evidence. All of the agencies are partners in the Alliance to
Combat Transnational Threats (ACTT) and participate in regular
planning, coordination and cooperation for joint operations in this
area.

SYNOPSIS: On January 9, 2013, a BLM Colorado River district ranger
/ K-9 handler assigned to the Lake Havasu Field Office, received a
request for assistance from Lake Havasu City Police Department
(LHCPD). LHCPD officers stopped a vehicle after learning that it
was suspected of transporting heroin from California. The
passengers did not consent to a search of the vehicle. The ranger
was nearby and responded to the scene. The K9 conducted a free air
sniff of the suspect vehicle and alerted to the presence of a
controlled substance. Officers searched the vehicle and found black
tar heroin and heroin paraphernalia. They also found, attached to
the undercarriage of the vehicle with a magnet, a hidden
compartment. The compartment was empty. The three people in the
vehicle were arrested on felony drug charges by LHCPD.

SUBJECT: Trespass - Resource Damage - Grazing Allotment
LOCATION: Ironwood Forest National Monument

SYNOPSIS: On January 8, 2013, a BLM Gila District law enforcement
ranger and a law enforcement ranger in the Field Training and
Evaluation Program were patrolling the Ironwood Forest National
Monument as part of Operation Reclaim Our Arizona Monuments (ROAM.)
The rangers conducted a follow-up investigation, based on a citizen
complaint, regarding recent resource damage. The complainant said
trees and cactuses were pushed over and roads had been graded near
the south end of the Sawtooth Mountains. Rangers responded to the
area and documented large amounts of ironwood, paloverde, and
mesquite trees, and cholla cactus which had been pushed into dirt
berms on the side of the roads by a large piece of machinery.
During the process of using a Global Positioning System to track
and document the resource damage along the roads, rangers located a
"D8" Caterpillar bulldozer in operation. The operator said he was
instructed to fix all the roads in a specific grazing allotment on
the monument by a known third party. Rangers documented over 30
miles of newly graded roads on public lands administered by the
BLM. Managers at the BLM Tucson Field Office gave an immediate
cease and desist order. Due to the size, complexity and expected
duration of the investigation, a BLM special agent is conducting
the ongoing investigation with assistance from resource
specialists. The cost of the resource damage resulting from this
trespass is anticipated to be extremely high.

SUBJECT: Employee Residential Burglary - Theft of Government
Firearm
LOCATION: Ranger Residence - Yuma, AZ

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On January 27, 2013, at approximately 1000
hours, a BLM Colorado River District ranger, assigned to the Yuma
Field Office, was notified that the garage door at his residence
was open. The ranger discovered that the door to his gun locker was
ajar and several firearms were missing. He immediately contacted
the Yuma County Sheriff's Office (YCSO). Nine personal firearms
and one government-owned, agency-issued firearm were missing.
Firearms were taken from the gun locker, from a cabinet in the
garage and from the ranger's personal vehicle which was parked in
the garage. No signs of forced entry were found. The ranger's
marked patrol vehicle was parked in the driveway at the time of the
burglary, which is believed to have happened between 0300 and 0800
hours. The ranger observed fresh tire tracks in his driveway from
an unknown vehicle. The ranger also located an empty gun case in a
neighbor's yard later that day. The ranger has a home alarm system
in his residence, but it was not armed, due to having guests at his
residence who were leaving early the following morning. YCSO
entered the stolen firearms into the National Crime Information
Center database as stolen property. YCSO is investigating several
other burglaries in the vicinity which were reported during the
same timeframe. Other law enforcement officers' homes in the
neighborhood have been targeted by burglars in recent months. A BLM
special agent, stationed in the Colorado River District, was
assigned to assist YCSO in the investigation.

SUBJECT: OPERATION ROAM - DRUG SEIZURE - 164 lbs
LOCATION: Ironwood Forest National Monument

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On January 16, 2016, at approximately 2200
hours, a BLM Gila District ranger and detailed rangers assigned to
Operation Reclaim our Arizona Monuments (ROAM,) were on patrol in
the Ironwood Forest National Monument when they were alerted to a
group of four persons carrying large bundles of suspected marijuana
in a remote area of the Monument. The rangers, including a BLM K9
team, hiked to the area. Four suspects emerged from a heavily
vegetated area and fled on foot. One was immediately apprehended by
the K9 team. Two others were apprehended shortly thereafter. An
exhaustive search for the fourth suspect was conducted in the dark
through difficult terrain; the suspect was not located. Four
bundles of suspected marijuana were located nearby. The three
suspects were transferred into the custody of the United States
Border Patrol. The suspects were determined to be unlawfully
present in the United States and were transported to the Tucson
Border Patrol Station pending removal and/ or prosecution. Rangers
transported the suspected marijuana to a secure evidence facility.
The total weight of the bundles was 164.5 pounds, with an estimated
street value of $131,600. All of the agencies are partners in the
Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats (ACTT) and participate in
regular planning, coordination and cooperation for joint operations
in this area.

SUBJECT: OPERATION ROAM - AGENCY ASSIST - DRUG SEIZURE - 179 lbs
LOCATION: Ironwood Forest National Monument

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On January 15, at approximately 2200 hours,
BLM rangers assigned to Operation Reclaim our Arizona Monuments
(ROAM), were patrolling the Ironwood Forest National Monument when
they received a request to assist United States Border Patrol
(USBP) agents. The USBP Agents identified a group of people
believed to be "backpacking" marijuana, just inside the Monument
boundary. Three USBP agents and three detailed rangers, including a
BLM K9 team, hiked into the area. The suspects fled on foot. Four
of the suspects had been carrying large backpack bundles, which
they dropped as they ran. The USBP agents secured the suspected
marijuana bundles and the rangers, including the K9 team, continued
to track the suspects. Approximately 10 minutes later, the K9 team
located two of the suspects. Upon seeing the K9, the two
immediately surrendered and were taken into custody without
incident. The other two suspects were tracked and eventually
apprehended. The final two suspects were not located despite an
exhaustive search. The USBP took custody of the suspects and
evidence. The total weight of the bundles was 179.8 pounds, with an
estimated street value of $143,840. All of the agencies are
partners in the Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats (ACTT) and
participate in regular planning, coordination and cooperation for
joint operations in this area.

SUBJECT: OPERATION ROAM - DRUG SEIZURE - 176 lbs

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On January 14, at approximately 1440 hours,
BLM rangers were patrolling the Ironwood Forest National Monument
in conjunction with Operation Reclaim Our Arizona Monuments (ROAM).
A United States Border Patrol (USBP) agent, assigned to the Tucson
Border Patrol Station, reported he could see four suspects believed
to be carrying drugs on the Ironwood. The USBP agent maintained
visual contact of the suspects and continuously communicated their
location while the rangers responded. A BLM Gila District ranger /
K-9 Handler and two Gila District rangers responded. The four
suspects fled, leaving behind four backpacks filled with suspected
marijuana. The rangers, along with additional units detailed to
ROAM, conducted an extensive tracking operation for the suspects
but were unable to locate them. The total weight of the suspected
marijuana was 176.8 pounds, with an estimated street value of
$141,440. The evidence was transported to a secure storage facility
at the Tucson Border Patrol Station for destruction. All of the
agencies are partners in the Alliance to Combat Transnational
Threats (ACTT) and participate in regular planning, coordination
and cooperation for joint operations in this area.

SUBJECT: OPERATION ROAM - AGENCY ASSIST - FAILURE TO YIELD

LOCATION: Sonoran Desert National Monument

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On January 12, at 1836 hours, BLM law
enforcement rangers patrolling the Sonoran Desert National
Monument, in conjunction with Operation Reclaim Our Arizona
Monuments (ROAM), received information regarding possible illegal
smuggling activity at a public rest area along Interstate 8. The
description of a suspected involved vehicle, a black BMW sedan, was
relayed to all officers in the area. Rangers and United States
Border Patrol (USBP) agents attempted to stop a Black BMW with
Alabama license plates, matching the description. The vehicle
failed to yield to emergency lights and sirens, fleeing east on
Interstate 8. Due to the excessive speed of the suspect vehicle and
inability to maintain sight of the vehicle rangers and the USBP
agents deactivated their lights and sirens and radioed the
information to units further east near Casa Grande. The Arizona
Department of Public Safety attempted to locate the vehicle, but
failed. Simultaneously, additional rangers stopped another vehicle
thought to be associated with the suspect vehicle. No evidence was
found with the second vehicle and the driver and vehicle were
released. Additional USBP agents located and stopped another Black
BMW further east, which was also found to be unrelated. The driver
and vehicle were released. Ultimately despite efforts of all
involved agencies no suspects or evidence were located. All of the
agencies are partners in the Alliance to Combat Transnational
Threats (ACTT) and participate in regular planning, coordination
and cooperation for joint operations in this area.

SUBJECT: Operation ROAM - Agency Assist (K9) - Drug Seizure
LOCATION: Tohono O'odham Nation
SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On January 11, 2013, at 2206 hours, BLM law
enforcement rangers patrolling the Sonoran Desert National Monument
in conjunction with Operation Reclaim Our Arizona Monuments (ROAM)
received a request for a K9 to assist Border Patrol agents with a
traffic stop on State Route 42 on the Tohono O'odham Nation,
immediately South of BLM lands. A BLM K9 unit assigned to Operation
ROAM responded to assist the agents who are assigned to the West
Desert Task Force. The BLM K9 unit conducted a free air sniff of
the exterior of the vehicle. The K9 entered the vehicle and gave a
positive indication for the presence of odor from a controlled
substance on top of a tarp in the back seat of the vehicle.
Underneath the tarp were 24 bundles of suspected marijuana,
weighing 363.7 pounds with an estimated street value of $290,960.
Border Patrol agents arrested the three vehicle occupants. Two were
United States Citizens and one was an illegal alien. A .380-caliber
handgun was found during the search of the vehicle. The agents
requested federal prosecution, which was declined. Pinal County
Sheriff's Office accepted the case for state prosecution and took
custody of the suspects and evidence. All of the agencies are
partners in the Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats and
participate in regular planning, coordination and cooperation for
joint operations in this area.

SUBJECT: Trial and Conviction - Tracy Levi Thibodeaux
LOCATION: Cochise County Superior Court - Bisbee, AZ

SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT: On June 5, 2010, while patrolling public
lands near Bowie in southeastern Arizona, BLM Gila District law
enforcement Rangers Mark Brunk and Tim Rinehart encountered Tracy
Levi Thibodeaux, 69, driving on a dirt road. Thibodeaux drove past
Rangers Brunk and Rinehart, stopped his truck on the road
approximately 100 yards away, and, using a scoped .30-06 rifle,
fired one shot at each ranger as they were sitting in their patrol
vehicles. One round penetrated the center of Ranger Rinehart's
windshield and the other round penetrated the hood of Ranger
Brunk's vehicle. Thibodeaux fled and evaded capture, despite an
exhaustive search. Five days later, he was arrested without
incident by Cochise County Sheriff's Office Deputies as he walked
to the post office in Bowie, Arizona, to retrieve his Social
Security check.

On January 11, 2013, following a three-day trial in Cochise County
Superior Court in Bisbee, Arizona, a jury found Thibodeaux, now 72,
guilty of two counts of attempted second degree murder and two
counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The two rangers
and a BLM special agent testified at the trial and were questioned
by Thibodeaux who elected to represent himself. Thibodeaux
contended he had fired at the two rangers out of self-defense
because he believed they were part of a government conspiracy
targeting him in response to questions he had asked about power and
water utilities in southern Arizona for a news article he intended
to write. Thibodeaux claimed a Federal Bureau of Investigation and
a Department of Homeland Security covert operation was tracking him
using satellite surveillance in order to abduct him and remove him
to a Middle Eastern country to be tortured.. Sentencing for
Thibodeaux is set for February 8, 2013.

SUBJECT: Human Smuggling - Arrest - K9 Utilization
LOCATION: Route 66 (BLM backcountry byway)

SYNOPSIS: On January 10, 2013, a BLM Colorado River district ranger
/ K-9 handler assigned to the Lake Havasu Field Office pulled a
vehicle over on Route 66 (BLM backcountry byway) for speeding. The
ranger approached the vehicle and saw nine subjects in the vehicle
with four males on the floor attempting to hide. After the ranger
determined the driver was an illegal alien, he was taken out of the
vehicle and detained. The other occupants of the vehicle attempted
to flee from the vehicle. Two were able to get past the ranger,
while he struggled with one of the other occupants of the vehicle.
The ranger handcuffed the subject he was struggling with and then
popped his K-9 door popper. The ranger placed his K-9 in the down
position and gave her the bark command. All the other suspects in
the vehicle complied after the K-9 was brought out. AN Arizona
Department of Public Safety officer and Mohave County Sheriff's
Office (MCSO) deputy arrived on scene and assisted in attempting to
locate the two suspects who fled. The suspects were not found. The
US Border Patrol responded and took custody of the six illegal
aliens. The Border Patrol was unable to obtain enough witness
information to charge the driver with a federal illegal alien
smuggling case. The driver was charged with transporting unlawful
aliens. The driver was transported to the MCSO Jail and booked
without incident. The Border Patrol placed a federal immigration
detainer on the driver, who will be processed for removal from the
United States following criminal proceedings.
SUBJECT: Operation ROAM - Drug Seizure
LOCATION: Sonoran Desert National Monument
SYNOPSIS: On January 1, 2013, at 2204 hours, BLM law enforcement
rangers were patrolling the Sonoran Desert National Monument in
conjunction with Operation Reclaim Our Arizona Monuments (ROAM.)
Two Phoenix district rangers were out on foot when they saw several
persons walking toward them crossing Interstate 8.The suspects were
carrying large rectangular backpacks, a technique commonly used by
drug smugglers in this area. As the suspects approached, the
rangers announced themselves as law enforcement and gave verbal
commands. The suspects dropped the backpacks in the I-8 median and
ran. A Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) deputy arrived on
right as the suspects were running southbound across the
interstate. The rangers and the deputyy conducted an immediate
search. No suspects were located. The total weight of the suspected
marijuana was 241 pounds, with an estimated street value of
$192,800. The evidence was transported to a secure MCSO storage
facility. All of the agencies are partners in the Alliance to
Combat Transnational Threats and participate in regular planning,
coordination and cooperation for joint operations in this area.
SUBJECT: Operation ROAM - Drug Seizure 129 pounds - K9 Utilization
LOCATION: Sonoran Desert National Monument

SYNOPSIS: On January 9, 2013, at 1943 hours, BLM law enforcement
rangers patrolling the Sonoran Desert National Monument in
conjunction with Operation Reclaim Our Arizona Monuments (ROAM)
were checking an area south of Interstate 8.Two Phoenix district
rangers saw a person suspect standing next to an interstate
culvert. The rangers announced themselves as law enforcement and
gave verbal commands, but the person ran away. Numerous suspected
marijuana backpacks were observed where the suspect was standing.
The rangers conducted an immediate search of the area. While
searching just off the interstate, two suspect vehicles pulled up
at the location, stopped and honked their horns, in an apparent
signal to have the marijuana backpacks loaded into the vehicles.
Two suspects exited the vehicles and approached the rangers'
position. The rangers utilized cover while guarding the seized
bundles awaiting the arrival of responding backup rangers. The
suspects attempted to whistle and call out to their contacts in the
brush to no avail. The vehicles then sped off together heading
east. A description of the vehicles was broadcast on multiple radio
frequencies by the Federal Law Enforcement Communication Center,
who then also made phone calls passing the information to
additional law enforcement agencies in the area. US Border Patrol
agents positioned themselves to intercept the vehicles, but the
vehicles never arrived at their location. Two additional BLM
rangers on detail from Montana and two special agents on detail
from Oregon assisted in the search. A secondary search of the area
with a K-9 unit from Dillon, Montana, located a male hiding in
heavy brush off the interstate. A short foot chase ensued but the
suspect was able to evade officers in the thick brush. Despite an
exhaustive search in thick vegetation at night, no suspects were
located or apprehended. The total weight of the suspected marijuana
was 129 pounds, with an estimated street value of $103,200. The
evidence was transported to a secure storage facility at the
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office pending later destruction. All of
the agencies are partners in the Alliance to Combat Transnational
Threats and participate in regular planning, coordination and
cooperation for joint operations in this area.

Last updated: 02-07-2013
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