Note: cover-up continues. Secure border? "Bandits have operated
at the border for decades, robbing and sexually assaulting illegal
immigrants crossing into the country." BTW, nothing yet on AZ/DOJ
webpage on this, but a Yuma donut shop owner has been indicted on
other stuff.
Man indicted in Arizona border agent's killing
May. 6, 2011 01:43 PM
Associated Press
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/05/06/20110506arizona-
border-agent-death-man-indicted.html
PHOENIX - A federal grand jury has indicted a man on eight charges,
including second-degree murder, in a shootout that left a Border
Patrol agent dead near the Arizona-Mexico border and heightened fears
in the state about cross-border violence.
The indictment for Manuel Osorio-Arellanes of El Fuerte, Mexico, was
unsealed Friday at his arraignment in Tucson. It also included
charges of assault on a federal officer, carrying a firearm to carry
out a crime and re-entering the U.S. after being deported.
An attorney for Osorio-Arellanes entered a plea of not guilty on his
behalf. His trial is set to begin on June 17 in Tucson.
U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke said in a statement that the indictment
"is an important step in this case." "But it is only a first step to
serving justice on behalf of Agent Brian Terry, his family, and the
other agents who were with Terry and their families," he said.
Terry was killed in the Dec. 14 shootout with bandits about 13 miles
north of the border.
The shooting broke out as Terry and three other agents tried to catch
five suspected illegal immigrants at the bottom of a flat canyon
north of the Arizona city of Nogales. At least two of the immigrants
were carrying assault rifles in the "ready position" when they
encountered the agents, according to the indictment.
The FBI said in court records that when the immigrants refused to
drop their guns, two agents fired beanbag rounds at them.
Two of the immigrants then fired at the agents, the indictment said,
leading the officers to return fire. No other agents besides Terry
were wounded.
Osorio-Arellanes was shot during the gunfight and later told
investigators that he had raised his gun toward the agents but didn't
fire at them, the FBI said in records.
Three other illegal immigrants were arrested near the scene but were
later cleared of involvement in the shootout. Federal authorities
haven't said whether other suspects are in custody, although one or
more other plaintiffs are listed on the indictment. Their names were
blacked out.
Terry, a former Marine and Michigan police officer, was part of an
elite squad similar to a police SWAT team that was sent to the remote
areas north of Nogales known for border banditry, drug smuggling and
violence.
Firearms records show that two rifles found at the scene of the
shootout were the same weapons being monitored by federal firearms
agents as part of a gun trafficking investigation.
Bandits have operated at the border for decades, robbing and sexually
assaulting illegal immigrants crossing into the country.
The bandits stake out heavily traveled smuggling paths used by
illegal immigrants and sneak up on them, pointing guns, forcing
border-crossers to the ground and stealing all their valuables.
Federal authorities have repeatedly declined to release information
about the shooting.
The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and
U.S. Customs and Border Protection have all denied Freedom of
Information Act requests that seek reports and other documents in the
investigation of the shooting, explaining that it's an open
investigation.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/
2011/05/06/20110506arizona-border-agent-death-man-
indicted.html#ixzz1Lc5RIjWX
Note: info on weapons recovered drying up even more.
GUNRUNNER: House committee tells what Holder won't
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is alleging
that high-ranking officials in the Department of Justice knew about
and approved Project Gunrunner, despite assertions by Attorney
General Eric Holder to the contrary, or his failure to answer
questions about the operation during a House committee hearing this
week.
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/gunrunner-house-
committee-tells-what-holder-won-t-2
Note: long detailed accounts of committee testimony, etc
http://tucsoncitizen.com/view-from-baja-arizona/
Note: as noted in earlier pieces, been going on for quite a while.
Also personnel of local governments (and higher?) on both sides of
border on payroll. After all, as stated before, govt. the most
lucrative of criminal enterprises.
Mexican drug gangs assuming government roles
Posted: Thursday, May 5, 2011 12:00 am | Comments
http://dynamic.azstarnet.com/comments/viewcomments.php?id=/news/local/
border/article_6f4c5a30-e69b-5626-8471-9b20caa59c25.html&h=Mexican%
20drug%20gangs%20assuming%20government%20roles
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - The "police" for the Zetas paramilitary cartel
are so numerous here - upward of 3,000, according to one estimate -
that they far outnumber the official force, and their appearance
further sets them apart.
Most are teens sporting crew cuts, gold chains and earrings, with
shorts worn well below the waist and cellphones pressed to their
ears. These "spotters" seem to be everywhere, including elementary
schools, keeping tabs on everything and everyone for the area's most
dominant drug cartel.
"Get the (expletive) away from my child!" Thelma Pena, a young
mother, yelled at a Zetas spotter as she took her son to school.
"Am I afraid of being killed?" she later said of her outburst. "We're
already dying, little by little, day by day."
The omnipresent cartel spotters are one aspect of what experts
describe as the emergence of virtual parallel governments in places
like Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Juarez - criminal groups that levy
taxes, gather intelligence, muzzle the media, run businesses and
impose a version of order that serves their criminal goals.
"President (Felipe) Calderón's war on drug cartels has been such an
abysmal failure that entire regions of Mexico are effectively
controlled by nonstate actors, i.e., multipurpose criminal
organizations," said Howard Campbell, an anthropologist and expert on
drug cartels at the University of Texas at El Paso.
"These criminal groups have morphed from being strictly drug cartels
into a kind of alternative society and economy," Campbell said. "They
are the dominant forces of coercion, tax the population, steal from
or control utilities such as gasoline, sell their own products and
are the ultimate decision-makers in the territories they control."
Calderón and his top aides insist that the government is making
gains, that new data show a decline in killings in the second half of
2010, proving that the cartels are losing and, in desperation, are
resorting to kidnapping, extortion and piracy.
Alejandro Poire, Calderón's spokesman for security issues, said that
two years ago the government identified the top 37 cartel leaders.
"The fact is, 20 of these 37 have been brought down, so these
criminal organizations have been weakened, have been significantly
weakened," Poire told The Dallas Morning News.
Poire later insisted that even northern Tamaulipas state - where 183
bodies have been recovered from clandestine graves in the past month,
including many victims believed to have been abducted at gunpoint
from public buses traveling on major highways - "is under the control
of the Mexican state."
Still, across Mexico, despite the presence of thousands of troops and
federal and state police, the government appears unable to restore
order.
In Ciudad Juarez, the Juarez cartel, which is defending its territory
against the Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, is
quietly installing its own rule.
In interviews with at least a dozen vendors, businessmen, cabdrivers
and shoe shiners, all talked of paying monthly extortion fees to the
cartel. Fees range from about $9 for street vendors, to $45 for
cabdrivers and $70 for junkyard owners.
The Juarez cartel and its enforcers, the La Linea gang, have even set
up bank accounts so businessmen can make direct deposits. Many of
those interviewed said they were not even bothering to pay federal
taxes anymore.
"What does that tell you?" asked Manuel Valdivia, a mechanic and
cabdriver. "Because to me it tells me everything I need to know about
who's in charge."
Eric Olson, a security expert for the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, said the
lines of authority are truly blurred in some places.
"There is no question that the lines between the state and organized
crime have been blurred in some areas of Mexico and, in some cases,
obliterated altogether," he said. "In such cases, local governments
continue to function 'normally' while protecting the interests of
organized crime over those of the citizens.
"In local areas where the state is unable to guarantee the safety and
well-being of citizens, organized crime provides de facto security
and even guarantees services for the public," Olson said. "So far,
this has been observed in limited areas of Mexico, but unless more is
done to control organized crime and strengthen the state, the
potential for expansion is very real."
"There is no question that the lines between the state and organized
crime have been blurred in some areas of Mexico and, in some cases,
obliterated altogether."
Eric Olson,
security expert for the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars in Washington
No comments:
Post a Comment