- SONOYTA, Mexico - This isolated
area of the U.S.-Mexico border, a 100-mile-wide stretch of wild desert
between the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Coronado National Forest,
has become one of America's newest drug corridors.
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- Mexican drug lords, backed by
corrupt Mexican military officers and police officials, will move tons
of marijuana, cocaine and heroin this year over rugged desert trails to
accomplices in Phoenix and Tucson for shipment to willing buyers throughout
the United States.
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- Most of the smuggling routes
pass through the Tohono O'odham Nation, a sprawling Indian reservation,
where undermanned and outgunned tribal police will confiscate more than
100,000 pounds of illicit drugs this year, about 300 pounds a day.
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- "They keep us running like
you can't believe," said Detective Sgt. David Cray, who heads the
Tohono Police Department's anti-drug unit. "They have two-way radios,
night-vision gear, body armor and carry automatic weapons."
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- "They've put people on the hills
to act as lookouts and use portable solar panels to power their communications
equipment," he said. "They have powerful four-wheel-drive vehicles
and are under orders not to stop - to shoot their way through if they have
to."
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- The smugglers, according to
U.S. law-enforcement authorities, often are protected by heavily armed
Mexican military troops and police, who have been paid handsomely to escort
the drug traffickers and their illicit shipments across the border and
into the United States.
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- The drug lords are expected
to spend more than $500 million this year in bribes and payoffs to a cadre
of Mexican military generals and police officials to ensure that the illicit
drugs reach their destination, the authorities said.
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- Mexican smugglers will account
for 80 percent of the cocaine and nearly half the heroin that reaches the
streets of America this year.
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- Law-enforcement authorities
all along the U.S.-Mexico border are concerned about the involvement of
Mexican military troops and police in the alien- and drug-smuggling business.
Several officials said in interviews that many Mexican police agencies
along the border have been "totally corrupted" by drug smugglers
and that the corruption included a number of key Mexican generals and other
commanders.
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- Violence along the border, fueled
by the drug trade, has spiraled out of control, the officials said.
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- Corruption among Mexican police
is so extensive, they said, that some U.S. law-enforcement agencies refuse
to work with their Mexican counterparts. Mexican police officials have
been tied not only to alien and drug smuggling, but also to numerous incidents
of extortion, bribery, robbery, assault and kidnapping along the border.
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- Border Patrol agents in Douglas,
Ariz., were pulled from their duty stations after police in Aqua Prieta,
Mexico, tipped U.S. authorities of a pending drug shipment. Supervisors
were fearful of putting their agents in the middle of a shootout between
rival drug gangs, each supported by competing Aqua Prieta police.
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- About two dozen incursions by
the Mexican military have been documented this year, some of which resulted
in unprovoked shootings, including one recent incident involving a U.S.
Border Patrol agent. Several law-enforcement authorities along the border
questioned why the Bush administration has not made an issue of Mexican
troops crossing into the United States.
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- "I'm not sure what other
country allows foreign military troops such willy-nilly access," said
one veteran Border Patrol agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
"I've seen them come across the border, heavily armed and equipped,
and I often wonder why we're not doing anything about it."
- The Mexican military deployments
have occurred all along the 1,940-mile U.S.-Mexico border, from Texas,
where Border Patrol agents in El Paso were fired on in March 2000 by people
in two Mexican army Humvees, to California, where 10 Mexican soldiers shot
at a Border Patrol helicopter in October 2000.
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- Many of the incursions have occurred
near this Mexican town, where drug trafficking by Mexican smugglers has
reached new levels.
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- "There's no doubt Mexican
military units along the border are being controlled by the drug cartels,
and not by Mexico City," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican,
who recently returned from a tour of the Southwest border. "The military
units operate freely, with little or no direction, and several of them
have made numerous incursions into the United States."
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- "Mexican President Vicente Fox
may be trying to take control of his military, but there is a major disconnect
between him and them - particularly among the units along the U.S.-Mexico
border," he said.
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- Mr. Tancredo, head of the 65-member
Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, said the amount of drug trafficking
in the remote regions of the Southwest desert has become so intense that
armed confrontations are a constant threat.
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- He said the trafficking has
been tied to Mexican drug cartels, and the shipments often are protected
- sometimes even delivered - by Mexican military units.
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- "There isn't a soul down
there on that border, either the Tohono O'odham police or the Border Patrol,
who do not believe that is exactly what the Mexican military is doing,"
he said. "U.S. law-enforcement personnel actually have watched the
Mexican military unload drugs from their Humvees to awaiting vehicles for
transport into the United States."
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- Military incursions into America
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- Over the past five years, U.S.
authorities have documented 118 incursions by the Mexican military. It
is not known how many times Mexican military units have crossed undetected
into the United States.
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- "I am amazed our government
is not up in arms about this, but I am not surprised," Mr. Tancredo
said. "While we have the resources to actually take control of our
borders, including a combination of the U.S. military and the Border Patrol,
we lack the political will."
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- "Instead, we continue to
send young men and women in harm's way, to be shot at and, perhaps, killed.
We're asking them to fight a war against an invasion of illegal immigrants
and drugs, but we fail to give them the support they need to win that war."
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- The most recent documented Mexican
military incursion occurred on May 17, when a Border Patrol agent was fired
on by three Mexican soldiers in a military Humvee near what is known as
the San Miguel gate on the Tohono reservation, about 30 miles northwest
of Nogales, Ariz. The gunfire, which erupted shortly after 8:30 p.m., shattered
the rear window of the U.S. agent's four-wheel-drive vehicle.
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- The unnamed agent, after spotting
the soldiers, had sought to avoid a confrontation and, according to U.S.
authorities, had turned his clearly marked, green-and-white Border Patrol
vehicle away from the Humvee when it was hit by gunfire. The Mexican soldiers
were armed with assault rifles.
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- One bullet was deflected by
the vehicle's prisoner partition, located directly behind the agent's seat.
It then knocked out the right rear window. The agent involved has been
on the job for about a year, authorities said.
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- Earlier that day and in the
same area, Border Patrol agents had confiscated 2,200 pounds of drugs from
a vehicle that had crossed into the United States, although a second vehicle
had escaped back into Mexico.
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- Edward Tuffly, president of
the National Border Patrol Council Local 2544, asked in a message posted
online to union members why the U.S. government was slow to acknowledge
the incident. "The politicians will run like hell to avoid 'offending'
anyone," he wrote.
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- Local 2544 represents Border
Patrol agents in the Tucson sector. The National Border Patrol Council
represents more than 8,000 nonsupervisory Border Patrol agents.
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- The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service, which oversees the Border Patrol, is investigating the May incident.
The INS has asked the Mexican government also to investigate the shooting.
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- In August, U.S. National Park
Service ranger Chris Eggle, 28, was killed on the Organ Pipe Cactus National
Monument while trying to apprehend two men fleeing Mexican law enforcement,
who had crossed the border into the United States. One of the men shot
Mr. Eggle just below his bulletproof vest.
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- U.S. authorities have since
identified the suspected assailant as Panfilo Murillo Aguila, a Mexican
national known as "El Zarco," a known drug smuggler in the Sonoyta
area. Arrest warrants also have been issued in the case for two former
Mexican soldiers identified as Rogelio Velasquez Jocobi and Carlos Perez
Sanchez.
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- Helping the drug trade
- Questions concerning the Mexican
military's involvement in the drug trade, however, are long-standing.
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- In 1998, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration reported an extensive connection between drug traffickers
in Mexico and senior members of the Mexican army. The DEA said at the time
that it avoided cooperating with Mexican army officers for fear that intelligence
would be passed on to drug smugglers.
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- Former DEA Administrator Donnie
Marshall told a House subcommittee in 1999 that drug traffickers "have
long had the ability to corrupt public officials and institutions throughout
the world," noting that the Mexican military was not exempt.
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- At the time, Mexican military
officers assigned to an elite anti-drug smuggling group had been arrested
in Mexico City on charges of drug trafficking and alien smuggling. Among
those arrested were several captains and majors, all of whom had been assigned
to the Mexican Attorney General's Office as anti-narcotics agents.
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- Since Mr. Fox's 2000 election
there has been an increase in the number of arrests of Mexican government
and military officials, along with the creation of a federal drug-enforcement
unit that has seized tons of narcotics and made numerous arrests.
-
- Mexican authorities also have
been more willing to work with their U.S. counterparts, and a number of
the leaders and top lieutenants from all four of Mexico's major drug cartels
have been arrested.
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- The Mexican government has denied
that any part of its military is working with the drug cartels, saying
in a recent statement that military units along the border are working
the same areas as the U.S. Border Patrol in fighting the illegal transport
of drugs and people into this country.
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- The statement said that sometimes
the troops "get lost in those areas," noting that there is "no
clear marking for the border" in many regions. Mexican Defense Department
officials have declined to say how many soldiers are patrolling the U.S.-Mexico
border or to comment on the incursions.
- Many U.S. law-enforcement authorities
doubt the contention that the units were lost.
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- "Some of these 'lost' units
are carrying drugs, and we've seen them before," said a second veteran
Border Patrol agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Besides,
if they are lost, why are they shooting at us instead of asking for directions?"
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- The politics of immigration
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- The White House opposes the
stationing of U.S. troops on the Mexican border for "cultural and
historical reasons."
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- President Bush, former governor
of Texas, has sought to appeal to Hispanic voters through such initiatives
as promoting a Western Hemispheric free trade zone, giving amnesty to 4
million to 7 million illegal immigrants in the United States and allowing
immigrants visas that would be renewable each year as long as they hold
jobs.
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- "Some look south and see
problems," Mr. Bush said in a speech last year to State Department
employees. "Not me. I look south and see opportunities."
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- But Mr. Tancredo said he wants
"an explanation of these 'cultural and historical' reasons why we
can't protect our nation's borders." He said it was "time"
for the U.S. government to order troops to the border to assist in controlling
illegal immigration and drug smuggling, both of which he described as "national
security concerns."
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- Earlier this year, some House
Republicans called on Mr. Bush to station military forces along the Southwest
border, citing a need to stop the persistent flow of illegal immigrants
and to combat drug smugglers, who have taken over several areas of the
lengthy border.
-
- The lawmakers said the number
of violent encounters along the border, including incursions involving
the Mexican military, was increasing, "creating a need for immediate
action on the part of our government."
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- "We are extremely concerned
about the porousness of both our northern and southern borders," said
Rep. Jim Ramstad, Minnesota Republican, who joined in the call for stationing
troops. "It is particularly disturbing that Canada and Mexico are
still not adequately screening immigrant and cargo traffic in and out of
their countries."
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- The Bush administration has placed
1,100 National Guardsmen on the borders with Canada and Mexico after the
September 11 terrorist attacks, but those deployments ended in summer.
- Meanwhile, officials at the
Border Patrol's Tucson sector office, which is responsible for 261 miles
of international border, continue to negotiate with the Mexican military
about the problems of drug trafficking, alien smuggling and incursions.
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- "We have attempted to maintain
an active dialogue with a number of the generals in the Mexican army,"
said Carlos X. Carrillo, assistant sector chief. "There is no question
that when there is an incident, it is of grave concern to us."
-
- "The safety of our agents
and the possible violation of U.S. law concerns us deeply."
- Assistant Chief Carrillo also
said Tucson sector supervisors have a "strong liaison" with Mexico
and have been "very active" in reaching out to their Mexican
law-enforcement counterparts. He said sector officials have "actively
sought an open line of communication in an effort to reduce the potential
of these kinds of incidents."
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- But despite the continuing dialogue,
there has been no decrease in the amount of drugs coming out of Mexico
into the United States. Additionally, the number of illegal aliens crossing
annually though the Tucson sector has skyrocketed.
-
- "Things have improved,"
said a top U.S. law-enforcement official. "But corruption is so deeply
entrenched in Mexico, it will take years to identify and remove those who
are still involved. Many Mexican military officers operate with total autonomy,
particularly in faraway places like the border."
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- "The drug smugglers have
a ton of money to persuade them to the dark side."
- At the Tohono O'odham Nation,
which shares 76 miles of international border with Mexico, the reservation's
75-member police department will spend more than $3 million this year on
all border-related issues, including the towing of up to 40 cars a day
abandoned by alien smugglers and drug smugglers.
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- "The problems of illegal
aliens and drug smuggling impacts significantly on the level of service
we can provide to our own community," said acting Assistant Police
Chief Joseph Delgado. "The Border Patrol has pushed the illegal immigrants
out of the cities and towns and to our reservation, where we do not have
the manpower to deal with the crunch. The community is upset that we can't
focus on them."
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- Chief Delgado noted that because
of the flood of immigrants and drug smugglers, the reservation has become
a violent place for the 13,000 people who call the Tohono O'odham nation
home. He said alien smugglers and drug smugglers refuse to stop for police
and often race their four-wheel-drive vehicles over the reservation's many
dirt roads at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.
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- "Our children are out in the
community, and every day they have to face these ruthless people,"
he said. "It is very frustrating that we have had to divert our attention
and our resources to focus not on our own community but to deal with this
rising immigration and drug problem."
-
- "We're literally the front
line of defense for the United States, and we are doing the best we can,"
he said. "But I assure you, it's going to get worse before it gets
better.""
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- All site contents copyright © 2002 News World Communications,
Inc.
-
-
- Comment
-
- Jay Alvarez
- 9-28-2
-
- Our men and women in the Border Patrol and other law
enforcement agencies are being shot to death and beaten by Mexican soldiers,
police and drug smugglers. It is time to close the border to drug traffickers
and ALL illegal immigrantes, from Al Qaeda to Asians to the millions of
Mexicans and other Latinos. Our Border Patrol must be given shoot-to-kill
orders to put some teeth into their efforts. Or, do we just let the killings
and beatings of our people continue? What FOOLS Americans are...they cannot
see the ruination of their country right before their own eyes. And the
liberals continue to bleat and moan about the 'plight' of the poor immigrants
and their suffering as they 'nobly seek a better life.' Bullsh*t. They
must stay and work to improve THEIR OWN countries. How many terrorists
and Chinese agents, etc, do you think are being denied access by our laughable
border policing efforts? Answer: zero. The heroic men and women trying
to defend our border are overwhelmed, underpaid, and in many cases, sadly,
corrupt. And yet Generalissimo Bush can send 200,000 US troops to the
Middle East to capture Iraq's oil reserves. ALL illegal 'immigrants' (invaders)
now in America must be rounded up and DEPORTED. PERIOD. They constitute
a deadly tumor in the heart of our fading nation.
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