Monday, September 30, 2013

AZMEX POLICY2 30-9-13

AZMEX POLICY 2  30 SEP 2013

Note:  A bit of spin here.  

Special report: Operation Hold the Line
Hold the Line: Experts say operation did more harm than good
By Lorena Figueroa / El Paso Times
POSTED:   09/30/2013 12:20:31 AM MDT


›› Photos: 20th anniversary of Operation Hold the Line on the US-Mexico border
›› Hold the Line: El Paso operation changed enforcement method along US-Mexico border
Juárez>> Operation Hold the Line, implemented by the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso in 1993, has done more harm than good in Juarez, according to local immigration experts.

They say the operation, which in two decades has evolved into a more secured and guarded El Paso-Juárez border, did not stop the flow of illegal immigration.

Instead, it contributed to more immigrant deaths and fed human smuggling organizations on both sides of the border.

For experts and advocates south of the Rio Grande, the only way to stop illegal immigration is with an immigration reform package in the United States that includes a mechanism that allows workers to temporarily stay in the U.S., or by expanding the visa program.

Immigration reform may not stop it completely but it will slow illegal immigration down significantly.

And a good immigration package would be more welcomed in Mexico than the current Border Patrol strategy that still mimics Operation Hold the Line, which was implemented 20 years ago this month.

The operation put 400 agents -- out of more than 600 agents on staff at the time -- along a 20-mile stretch along the Rio Grande in El Paso and Juárezto provide "a show of force" to potential border crossers.

In 1990, 1991 and 1992, before the operation was implemented, Juárez accounted for about 20 percent  of all illegal crossings between Mexico and the United States, according to Juárezresearcher Rodolfo Rubio from Colegio de la Frontera Norte, or Colef. Rubio is an expert on immigration flows. He produces Mexico's North Border Immigration Survey.

Colef's annual survey, started in 1993, has become a barometer on immigration flows between Mexico and the United States.

The aggressive strategy of sealing El Paso-Juárez border resulted in a 75 percent reduction in apprehensions, from 285,000 to 79,000 after the first year of Operation Hold the Line.

For the Border Patrol, the operation was an overnight success and it was quickly expanded into California where it was called Operation Gatekeeper, and in Arizona as Operation Safeguard. It was later implemented in the rest of Texas where it was known as Operation Rio Grande.

Rubio said the central idea of Hold the Line was, and continues to be, to discourage undocumented immigrants from crossing illegally into El Paso. But for most undocumented immigrants, the operation was an inconvenience, not a discouragement, he said.

Instead of crossing through El Paso, undocumented immigrants changed their routes and began crossing through desolate, remote and more-dangerous places. And, if they were caught, they chose a voluntary exit from the United States instead of being formally deported, which allowed the immigrants to avoid federal criminal charges.

The flow of illegal immigration in this region has shifted to the Valley of Juárez or the Palomas-Columbus, N.M., area.

In other border communities, like the San Diego-Tijuana border, the flow moved to the east.

By the end of the 1990s, most of the illegal immigration was flowing through the area of the Sonora, Arizona desert, according to Colef's survey.

What Operation Hold the Line did do, Mexican experts say, is force undocumented immigrants to reduce their travels into the United States.

Before the operation, Mexican citizens routinely traveled several times a year between the United States and Mexico or their countries of origin. For those living in Juárez, immigrants used to cross up to three times a day to work or shop, Rubio said.

That all stopped in 1993.

Longer stays

Instead of crossing daily, Rubio said immigrants began staying in the U.S. for longer periods of time or permanently, which contributed to the growth in population of immigrants living unlawfully in the country.

Analyses of census data from the U.S. and Mexican governments show that the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States peaked at 12.2 million in 2007.

Experts said the reduced number of crossings explains why there was a reduction in Border Patrol apprehensions after Operation Hold The Line was implemented.

And because of that the immediate success of Hold The Line was measurable, but inaccurate in the long run.

"The illegal immigration flow did not stop. Immigrants continued crossing despite the risks, obeying the expansion of work supply in the United States," Rubio said.

The number of deaths of immigrants trying to cross the United States illegally soared after 1993. Experts and human rights advocates blame the sealing of the border.
"It was the most terrible indicator of the new policy," Rubio said of Hold the Line.

According to Colef's survey, since 1994 the number of deaths average about 400 each year, reaching peaks in 2000 and 2007 when 491 and 520 immigrants, respectively, died trying to illegally cross the U.S.- Mexico border.

In El Paso-Juárez about two deaths on average were reported before 1993. By 1995 there were 14 and five years later that number almost doubled to 27, according to news archives.

The same trend continued in the last decade. From 2004 to 2012, 126 Mexicans died while attempting to cross this border, reaching its peak in 2005, when 30 deaths were reported, according to statistics of the Consulate General of Mexico's office in El Paso.

Most immigrants drowned in the Franklin Canal or died of sunstroke or hypothermia in the dessert near Deming, Lordsburg and Columbus, N.M., statistics show.

"Immigrants prefer to die in the attempt to cross than to stay in their hometowns to see their families die of hunger," said the Rev. Javier Calvillo, director of Casa del Migrante in Juárez, a shel ter for immigrants founded 20 years ago. "That is what they have told us in the past and we continue hearing it."

Smuggling increase

What Operation Hold the Line did do was contribute to an increase in immigrant smuggling which continues to feed organized crime on both sides of the border, according to experts.

Currently human smuggling is the second largest illicit activity in Mexico after drug trafficking.

According to Colef, in 1993 only 12 percent of immigrants that arrived in Juárez who planned to cross into the United States hired a "coyote" or "pollero" to help them cross. That percentage began to increase after Hold the Line because of the difficulty to cross a more guarded border, experts said.

By the early 2000s, about half of immigrants trying to cross illegally hired a human smuggler and by 2012 that percentage jumped to 80, according to Colef's survey.

"Immigrants became more dependent human smugglers because they knew the area and the weaker points of the border," Rubio explained.

He added that most immigrants that use a "coyote" are newcomers who do not know the border and its risks. Those immigrants that knew the region preferred to stay permanently in the United States.

With the increase in the use of coyotes came a rise in prices they charge. Rubio said that in the early 1990s the payment to a human smuggler was $200 on average.

Now it could be up to $9,000, depending on the type of service, which today includes transportation, shelter and sometimes the sale or rental of U.S.-issued immigration documents, he said.

Lucía Campos, 38, last month paid $18,000 to get legitimate U.S. Visas that do no belong to her. She got one for her, her husband and her two daughters from a woman that had "helped her" cross illegally into the United States through El Paso-Juárez border once before.

The package she paid for included shelter in Juárez and El Paso, and transportation to Fort Worth, where she and her family had lived for eight years until 2011. They returned to Mexico last year when her mother-in-law fell ill.

The family was staying at the Casa del Migrante in Juárez last week.

A native of Mexico City, Campos said that in 2003 when she and her family crossed the border for the first time she paid $1,500 per visa.

But it is not as easy to cross now and a high fee does not a guarantee a successful, or safe, crossing into the United States as more and more coyotes are leaving immigrants behind.

"Immigrants have become merchandise, rather than clients, for smugglers," Calvillo said.

He said that immigrants are exposed, not only to the dangers of the environment when crossing illegally through the dessert or the Rio Grande, but to being kidnapped, being forced into prostitution -- in the case of women -- or sold to other criminal organizations.

"The worse case is for them to be abandoned and left to die," Calvillo said.

Campos was, in a way, lucky. She was arrested Aug. 5 while crossing at Bridge of the Americas in El Paso. Her family was with her and also got arrested.
"I think we were decoys," she said.

Campos explained that a guide told her and her family at the last minute to walk through the southbound lanes of the free bridge to avoid inspection. At the same time, a woman did the same but underneath the bridge with the guide.
"Of course we were arrested. The other person (woman) crossed without any problems," she said.

After a month in jail, Campos, her husband and one daughter were deported through Juárez, where she tried to contact the same woman smuggler to get her money back.
"She refused," she said. "The only thing she could do for us is to try to cross us (illegally) again."

Shift in crossings

Today Juárez accounts for less than 1 percent of all immigrants who plan to cross illegally into the United States. The majority of them, 70 percent, are concentrated between Arizona and California, Rubio said.

The increased cost for the use of a coyote in El Paso has played a major role in the shift, Rubio said.

Calvillo said that immigrants who do not have the resources to pay for a guide or to travel to another state to cross illegally are the ones that become victims of the sealed border in El Paso.

Despite the risks, only a small percentage of all immigrants decide to stay in Juárez. Even those who have been deported once, are willing to try it again.

Colef's survey, which interview's hundreds of immigrants each year, shows that in the early 1990s more than 60 percent of immigrants had one thing in mind: to cross the border.

The implementation of Hold the Line and other operations on the border did not dissuade immigrants to enter for the first time or return to the United States. In 2003 about 75 percent of immigrants said they wanted to cross the border and by 2010 that percentage increased to 85 percent, according to the survey.

Experts said that poverty, lack of job opportunities in their hometowns, as well as family reunification and supply of jobs in the United States are the factors that have driven people to continue to immigrate.

The U.S. recession, the collapse of the U.S. construction industry and the anti-immigrant climate in the United States slowed down illegal crossings in the mid 2000s and begun, what Rubio calls a "rebound" of immigration from the United States to Mexico.

According to the Mexican census, almost 1 million Mexicans residing illegally in the United States -- about 834,000 adults and 122,000 minors who were born in the United States -- returned to Mexico between 2005 and 2010.

Among those returning included immigrants that had been living in the United States for years, even decades. They had a job, a home, and in many cases children born in the United States.

Recent data form the Hispanic Pew Center indicates that about 3.3 million U.S. children live in families with one or both parents.

"It begun the drama of the separation of families," Calvillo said.

María, who was living last week at Casa del Migrante in Juárezsince being deported, was separated from her daughter and her 10-year-old granddaughter, a U.S. citizen who is in Dallas.

Her daughter is still detained at Otero County Jail trying to fight deportation, awaiting if she can benefit from the Dream Act. María's daughter has a bachelor's degree in physical therapy and was finishing a master's degree in Dallas before she traveled to Mexico last year.

María said does not know if she could ever enter the United States again.

"I feel like 20 years of my life in the United States -- my job, my house, my family -- were suddenly robbed," she said.

Rubio said there is a good possibility that illegal immigration continues increasing once the United States fully recuperates, despite all security at the border.

"But it would not be in the great immigration volumes that we saw in the last two decades", he predicts.

Mexico's workforce is aging and jobs and wages are rising in that country.

Lorena Figueroa may be reached at 546-6129

END

AZMEX POLICY 30-9-13

AZMEX POLICY 30 SEP 2013

Sep 30, 2:18 PM EDT

Judge bars AZ sheriff from using smuggling tactic

By PAUL DAVENPORT and JACQUES BILLEAUD 
Associated Press



PHOENIX (AP) -- A federal judge has barred Arizona's most populous county from using a policy that allows people who paid to be smuggled into the U.S. to be charged under the state's immigrant smuggling law as conspirators in the crime.

U.S. District Judge Robert Broomfield's ruling said Maricopa County's interpretation of the 2005 state law cannot be enforced by Sheriff Joe Arpaio or county prosecutors because it conflicts with - and is trumped by - federal law.

Broomfield said the policy criminalizes actions that federal law treats as a civil matter.
"It is hard to imagine a more blatant conflict than that," he said Friday in his 60-page ruling.

Attorneys for the activists and others who challenged the policy did not immediately respond Monday to requests for comment.

However, Peter Schey, an attorney for the activists, said in a statement that the ruling "will hopefully bring to an end a mean-spirited and short-sighted policy that has severely harmed a large number of immigrants during the past several years in an entirely unconstitutional manner."

The county attorney's office was reviewing the ruling and had no immediately comment, spokesman Jerry Cobb said.

Broomfield's ruling is the latest in a series of restrictions placed by the courts and the federal government on immigration enforcement efforts by Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Seventy-five percent of the approximately 1,800 people charged under the smuggling law in Maricopa County through June 2011 were facing counts of conspiring to sneak themselves into the country.

That drew complaints from immigrant rights advocates that the statute was intended for often-violent smugglers, not their customers, and that the prosecution policy was pre-empted by federal immigration law.

Attorneys defending Maricopa County prosecutors and Arpaio argued that the interpretation didn't conflict with federal law. They also pointed out that Arizona law allows people to be convicted of conspiracy, even when they can't be convicted of the underlying crime itself.

The state smuggling law was passed in 2005 as lawmakers responded to voter frustration over Arizona's role as the nation's busiest immigrant smuggling hub. It marked the state's second major immigration law and was followed in 2010 with a wide-ranging statute that required police to make immigration checks in certain cases and inspired similar laws in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah.

Several weeks after the smuggling law took effect in August 2005, Maricopa County's then-top prosecutor issued a legal opinion that said immigrants suspected of using smugglers to enter the country illegally can be charged as conspirators. Maricopa County is the only county in the state to use the conspirator interpretation for the smuggling law.

State courts upheld the legal interpretation of then-Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, but critics continued their fight in federal court.

The suit challenging the policy was dismissed, but the case was revived in July 2010 when an appeals court ruled that a trial judge erred in dismissing organizations and taxpayers who challenged the prosecution tactic.

Those pushing the lawsuit - the Arizona Hispanic Community Forum, the Hispanic civil rights group Somos America, former Democratic state Sen. David Lujan of Phoenix and Arizona State University professor LaDawn Haglund - weren't seeking monetary damages and instead asked Broomfield to declare the policy unconstitutional and to bar county prosecutors and Arpaio's agency from bringing conspiracy cases under the law.

Fighting illegal immigration became a central part of Arpaio's political identity over the past seven years, bucking the long-held tradition in American law enforcement for local police to stay out of immigration enforcement and leave those duties to the federal government.

But Arpaio's immigration enforcement powers have been sapped since October 2009, when Washington stripped some of his officers of their power to make federal immigration arrests. Arpaio continued by enforcing Arizona's smuggling law and another state immigration law.

In a separate racial-profiling case in federal court, a judge in May ruled that Arpaio's department had systematically singled out Latinos in its immigration patrols.

END

AZMEX EXTRA 27-9-13

AZMEX EXTRA  27 SEP 2013  

AZMEX EXTRA  27 SEP 2013  


El Paso man sentenced to 15 years in prison in Sinaloa drug cartel gun-smuggling case
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
POSTED:   09/26/2013 12:09:52 AM MDT


An El Paso man was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison for his role in a gun-smuggling scheme that helped arm the Sinaloa drug cartel, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo sentenced Julio Adrian "Tato" Pesqueira Galaviz, 25, to the legal maximum for Pesqueira's leadership role in a ring that from July 2010 to May bought AK-47 rifles and other firearms in El Paso that were smuggled to Sinaloa cartel members in Mexico, officials said.

Court records showed Pesqueira was arrested Nov. 15.

On June 26, Pesqueira pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to make a false statement during a firearms purchase, false statement during a firearm purchase and conspiracy to transfer a firearm for the use in a violent or drug-trafficking crime. Officials said Pesqueira is the first of 11 defendants to be sentenced.

END



Note:  The Mexican and U.S. governments have deployed significant assets to take out the zetas.  

Take down 25 criminals operating against crime in Tamaulipas
Federal agents and state of the coordination group also reported that ensured a rocket launcher and 21 grenades
09/26/2013 20:34 Hector Gonzalez Antonio / Correspondent


Photo: File Cuartoscuro
CIUDAD VICTORIA , September 26 . - In Tamaulipas , results of the implementation of the Coordination Group operating through Mixed Operations Base (BOM ) resulted in the arrest of 25 people , securing weapons, including a rocket launcher and 21 grenades.

The afternoon of Thursday , the group which includes the bodies of state and federal safety , announced that these actions allowed the seizure of 38 rifles, 10 handguns, 316 chargers, 8,786 cartridges of various calibers .

Besides 42 vehicles , communication equipment 25 , 2,570 kilos of marijuana, 12 kilos of cocaine, one kilo of Crystal, 10,500 liters of gasoline stolen , 999,000 pesos and 92,500 dollars .

This during the week between 16 and 23 September, when they were arrested that number of alleged perpetrators of various crimes in border towns of this entity .

Of the 42 vehicles recovered , 20 were reported as stolen , ten of them in the United States and the others in Mexico .

Those arrested as suspects of various crimes , were turned over to agents of the Public Ministry of the state and federal courts , who determine their legal status.

ogz



Note:  Somehow our cartel friends haven't seemed to be affected by the ammunition shortages.  The average street thug might have 3 or 4 rounds for his piece.  

Man shot with 30 bullets
Body found in Costa Rica path with multiple wounds caps are Ak -47 rifle , 9mm and   .40  guns .
IONSA
27/09/2013


Projectile impacts CULIACÁN._ With bullets from a Ak -47 rifle and handguns of various calibers in various parts of his body was found the body of an unidentified individual , beside a road in the receivership of Costa Rica .

Authorities information indicates that the deceased is about 30-35 years old , slim , light brown skin and black hair , wearing a pair of shorts in black , wore a white shirt and white sneakers .

It was reported that because not carrying official documents was not possible to identify the victim.

The body was found around 8:40 pm yesterday beside a dirt road that connects the village with the road The Quemadito the receivership of Costa Rica .

The body was lying face up and naked eye liked him multiple projectile impacts firearm.

The Public Prosecutor became the place to attest the fact and rose from the crime scene a total of seven cases 9 and 40 mm caliber and 24 from a AK- 47 , which were integrated into the file of the investigation the murder.

The humanity of the unknown was taken to the Forensic Medical Service facilities for practicarle the studies required by law and to be identified and claimed by relatives.

UNIDENTIFIED
The person found shot to death has the following features :
Approximate age : 30 to 35 years
Build: slim
Complexion : light brown
Hair: black
dressed
Short: black color
Shirt : White
He wore
Tennis: white

EVIDENCE
The Public Prosecutor rose at the crime scene :
7 cases : 9 and 40 mm caliber
24 cases : AK -47 rifle

end


AZMEX ACTIVITY 31-8-13

AZMEX ACTIVITY 31 AUG 2013

From AZ sources:

NEW ! Daily "Border Audio"  Archives now up on    (< click on icon ) 


07/29/13 - 0000~2400hrs - 19 Groups, 63 Bodies 

7 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 


Groups of: 1,3,1,5,4,2,9,5,4,3,3,5,2,5,2,5,1,1,2

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight Sighting, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout. UDA= Illegal Alien)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

END


07/30/13 - 0000~2400hrs - 13 Groups, 56 Bodies 

5 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio073013.mp3

Groups of: 1,3,6,1,1,2,1,2,12,8,9,1,9P

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight Sighting, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout. UDA= Illegal Alien)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

END



07/31/13 - 0000~2400hrs - 19 Groups, 64 Bodies - Multiple "Bailouts" 

5 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio073113.mp3

Groups of: 7P,6,8,4,2,1,9,4,7,4P,3,2,1,4,B,1,6-B,2

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight Sighting, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout. UDA= Illegal Alien)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

1500 - "Bailout" - East of Sierrita Mt. Road off of Goldwater Road, SE of Three Points, AZ
2100 - "Bailout" - Interstate 10, Pinal Airpark Exit  (Exit 232) - 4 in custody, 2 absconded 


END
END

Friday, September 27, 2013

AZMEX POLICY2 26-9-13

AZMEX POLICY 2 26 SEP 2013 

Note:  Best quote:  "So it does come down to local communities taking matters into their own hands to ensure they are successful," O'Rourke said.

Arizona left out of new port of entry staffing solution
Jonathan Clark
Port staffing
CBP Officer Jose R. Soria waves a car through the Mariposa Port of Entry in this file photo from 2012. A program that lets border communities pay for extra port officers is not currently an option at Arizona ports like this one.

Posted: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 8:54 am | Updated: 10:51 am, Tue Sep 24, 2013.
By Curt Prendergast
Nogales International 


A federal program allowing border communities to put up the money to hire more customs officers may prove to be a windfall for border towns, just not any in Arizona. 

Understaffing at local ports of entry is a perennial complaint of local business and political leaders, especially as the expanded Mariposa Port of Entry becomes fully operational in the coming year. The so-called "reimbursable fee agreements" pilot program could have alleviated those worries, albeit at local expense.
Four of the ports selected for the pilot program in August are in Texas, one is in Miami, and none are in Arizona, leaving local business leaders wondering if the federal government is "picking winners and losers on border trade."

"I was told by somebody in your trade community, 'Well, that's not fair,' and it's not fair," said Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) during a recent visit to Nogales to discuss redefining border security to include the economy and other considerations.
"The federal government, Congress, the administration, should get its act together and staff those ports adequately," he said. "The problem is that for the last 10 years it hasn't happened and I don't expect it to anytime in the near future."
"So it does come down to local communities taking matters into their own hands to ensure they are successful," O'Rourke said.

Arizona was left out of the pilot program because state legislators in Texas passed legislation to allow border businesses and cities to raise funds to hire CBP officers or pay for overtime. No such legislation exists in Arizona, said Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.).
In addition, CBP selected ports of entry in Texas because most are at bridges, which simplifies the process of determining who should be charged to cross the border, Grijalva said. In Arizona, decisions would have to be made on whether to charge passenger vehicles, pedestrians, or trucks, he said.
"How is the state of Arizona, or businesses in the state of Arizona, supposed to compete?" said Bruce Bracker, chairman of the Greater Nogales Santa Cruz County Port Authority. In Nogales, ports of entry are understaffed by at least 200 officers, he said.
With the pilot program, "all of a sudden you have the federal government picking winners and losers on border trade," Bracker said.

How it works
Under the five-year agreements, public and private entities can request that U.S. Customs and Border Protection offer a service and then reimburse CBP for the cost, according to a CBP fact sheet.
Services that can be funded include "all Customs- and Immigration-related inspectional activities and may cover all costs, such as the salaries of additional staff, overtime expenses, and transportation costs," according to the fact sheet. In addition, facility upgrades and equipment can also be funded.
Three of the ports selected are airports, one each in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Miami. The Port of Miami, under the auspices of Miami-Dade County, also was selected.

The rest of the ports are land bridges along the Texas-Mexico border, such as the City of El Paso and the South Texas Assets Consortium, which includes ports of entry in McAllen, Laredo, Cameron County, and Rio Grande City.
The consortium also includes the City of Pharr, which sent a delegation to Rio Rico on Aug. 27 in an attempt to coax local businesses into relocating there.

Texas vs. Arizona
O'Rourke, whose district includes El Paso, said much of the recent infrastructure improvements in that city's ports of entry were funded locally. As part of the pilot program, the El Paso community decided to dedicate more than $2.5 million to hire more CBP officers and pay them overtime, he said.
That kind of money shows the difference between competing ports of entry on the border, Bracker said, noting that $2.5 million would eat up a large portion of the sales tax collected by the City of Nogales each year.
Bracker added that local industry already taxed itself to provide infrastructure, he said, citing the Single Trip Overweight Border Permit fee – which city officials say brought in about $700,000 to city coffers last fiscal year – that is meant to fund road improvements.

The pilot program also shows the different ways people understand the roles of customs officers and Border Patrol agents in border security, he said.

"The bottom line is if the federal government came to us and said, 'We can't afford Border Patrol anymore. So if you want Border Patrol in your area, you're going to have to pay for it as a community,' what do you think would be going on in this country?" Bracker asked.
"The outrage, I mean the voices would be ringing on high from all 50 states," he said.   

end



Note:  Not to mention what happens after delivery.  

CBP, Coast Guard Need To Improve Controls Over Foreign Military Sales Exports
By: Anthony Kimery
09/25/2013 ( 9:43am)


US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the US Coast Guard (USCG) need to improve their controls over exports related to Foreign Military Sales, said the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General (IG).
 
The finding was made during the IG's fiscal year 2013 Annual Performance Plan, under which the IG reviews DHS' controls and oversight of Foreign Military Sales (FMS).
 
Under the FMS program, the Coast Guard procures and provides defense-related articles and services to foreign governments. CBP in turn controls exports of articles related to Foreign Military Sales. In February 2013, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) deemed Foreign Military Sales a high risk area for the federal government. DHS' Inspector General conducted its audit to determine whether CBP and Coast Guard "have adequate controls over the Foreign Military Sales export process."
 
The IG's audit report stated that "CBP has a process to assess the risk associated with exports and target shipments for physical inspection," but that "during this process, officers rely on potentially unverified and inaccurate information that shippers submit to an export database."
 
In addition, the IG reported, "according to officers at the two ports we reviewed, they did not physically inspect any Foreign Military Sales-related exports in fiscal year 2012. CBP also does not have a centralized system to track Foreign Military Sales-related exports, which increases the risk of unauthorized exports and diminishes the efficiency of the process."
 
"CBP's guidance to the ports for handling Foreign Military Sales-related shipments is outdated, and the component does not provide formal training to its officers on handling these exports," the IG said. And "Of the USCG contracts for Foreign Military Sales articles that we reviewed, not all specified that they were related to the program, nor did they all include Foreign Military Sales requirements."
 
Foreign Military Sales regulations do not require operating agencies such as the Coast Guard to verify accuracy of shipment documentation in the Automated Export System CBP uses to assess risk and target shipments for physical inspections. "Therefore," the IG's report said, "the USCG may be unaware of inaccurate Foreign Military Sales-related shipment documentation in the system."
 
The Inspector General made three recommendations that, "when implemented, should improve CBP's and USCG's controls over exports related to Foreign Military Sales."
 
Both CBP and the Coast Guard concurred with the IG's recommendations to fix the problems.
 
The IG noted that Congress' investigative branch, the GAO, stated in a May 2009 audit report that CBP officers did not have key information in export documentation needed to properly record the value of defense-related articles shipped under FMS Letter of Offer and Acceptance, or LOAs.
 
As part of the FMS process, the US Navy's International Programs Office provides the Coast Guard with a Letter of Request from a foreign government. After reviewing the request and determining the price, the Coast Guard issues a LOA that describes the goods and services to be provided and their value.
 
DHS' Inspector General also pointed out that GAO had noted that CBP had not updated its US Customs Control Handbook for Department of State Licenses since 2002, and was not adequately instructing its officers on tracking shipment and LOA values.
 
"Finally," the IG said, "CBP had not acted on GAO's 2003 recommendation to update the process for recording information on FMS-related shipments at ports because it did not have a centralized database to link records among the hundreds of ports processing such shipments."
 
At the time of GAO's 2009 audit, the IG said, "CBP planned to develop a new centralized system to automatically decrement the value of individual FMS-related shipments; however, at the time of our review, CBP had not developed the system."
 
Furthermore, the IG said "In a February 2013 report to Congress on high-risk areas of the federal government, GAO pointed out that DHS, Department of Defense and the Department of State still needed to improve internal and interagency practices to facilitate reliable shipment verification, as well as improve monitoring and administration of the FMS program."
 
Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/anthonykimery
 
end

AZMEX POLICY 26-9-13

AZMEX  POLICY 26 SEP 2013

Note:  We will not discuss the shootings by cartel associates and bandits.  Nor the so successful use of bean bag ordinance.  Especially when confronting rifles with real bullets in hands of bandits and smugglers.  

Arizona border shootings
9 hours ago  •  Arizona Daily Star


WASHINGTON — Amid criticism about U.S. border agents using deadly force against immigrants illegally crossing the Mexican border, the Homeland… Read more

Border Patrol agents shot three people in Southern Arizona between October and December last year.

Border Patrol agent Nick Ivie died near Bisbee in the early morning of Oct. 2, 2012, in an exchange of gunfire with fellow agents.

The night of Oct. 10, Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez was shot many times on a sidewalk in Nogales, Sonora, downhill and across the street from the border fence that the agent fired through.

The 2012 fatal shooting of Elena Rodríguez, 16, is still being investigated. Authorities said a group of people were throwing rocks when a Border Patrol agent fired through the border fence, but a witness has said Elena Rodriguez wasn't throwing rocks.

In August, the Justice Department said it wasn't prosecuting the Border Patrol agents who shot and killed Ramses Barrón Torres and another teen, Carlos LaMadrid, in separate 2011 incidents along the Arizona border.

Barrón Torres, 17, was among three people throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents, the Justice Department has said, even after the agents asked them to stop. An autopsy determined the cause of death was a bullet that entered through his right arm and went through his chest, puncturing his lungs and spleen.

The Justice Department said it lacked jurisdiction in the Barrón Torres case because he was slain on the Mexico side of the border.

LaMadrid, 19, was shot in the back several times as he climbed a ladder against the border fence to evade authorities in March 2011. The government said the Douglas teen was in the line of fire because people were throwing rocks at the agents from the top of the fence. The family is suing the government in federal court.

end


Dashboard cameras coming to US border agent trucks
20 hours ago  •  Associated Press


WASHINGTON — Amid criticism about U.S. border agents using deadly force against immigrants illegally crossing the Mexican border, the Homeland Security Department said Wednesday it will test new dashboard cameras and overhaul basic training for new agents.

The policy changes do not impose any restrictions on agents who fire on immigrants who throw rocks at them. But the agency does plan to add additional training on rock-throwing incidents.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection described the changes to The Associated Press as resulting from an outside review, an internal audit and a separate report by the department's inspector general. The changes include a pilot program using dashboard cameras in agency vehicles and possibly lapel cameras attached to agents' uniforms, a senior official said. The agency also plans changes to its internal oversight of use-of-force training and how such incidents are tracked.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the department's planned training changes because they had not been released publicly.

Customs and Border Protection has been criticized by civil rights groups and others over agents' use of deadly force along the Mexican border. The inspector general's report this month concluded that many agents don't understand the agency's policies.

The American Civil Liberties Union has attributed at least 19 deaths to CBP since 2010.

The agency's acting commissioner, Thomas Winkowski, said it agrees with "the spirit and concerns underlying all of the recommendations" in all three reports.

"As implementation of these enhancements continues, CBP will continue to evaluate the use of force program and practices to ensure the safety of our law enforcement personnel and the public with whom we interact," Winkowski said in a statement.

The changes don't address one of the biggest criticisms — policies that allow Border Patrol agents to use deadly force against rock throwers. Eight people have been killed by agents in rock throwing incidents since 2010, according to the ACLU. According the IG report, there were 185 rock assaults in the 2012 budget year, and agents responded with gunfire 12 percent of the time. CBP has defended the policy.

The official told the AP that further changes to use-of-force policy are being considered, but the department will keep agent safety its priority.

Vicki B. Gaubeca, director of the ACLU of New Mexico's Regional Center for Border Rights, described the policy and training changes as an "important advance ... limited in scope and vision."

"The biggest missing piece here is clear and transparent accountability for officers involved in use-of-force incidents that lead to serious physical injury or death. Without a commitment to end the culture of impunity at CBP, the agency's good first steps will lead nowhere," Gaubeca said.

The official said new trainees will have more training days involving real-life scenarios. The agency is building replica border fences at CBP's training center in Artesia, N.M., and adding training about using nonlethal weapons, including guns that fire beanbags or pepper balls.

The use of dashboard cameras has grown in popularity among local and state law enforcement agencies. Video footage of a confrontation with a suspect can help investigators determine when an officer uses excessive force and protect officers from false allegations.

CBP has cameras along the border and at international ports that have captured deadly encounters between immigrants and CBP agents and officers. That footage is almost never released publicly under an exception to the Freedom of Information Act preventing release of files related to police investigations.
end

AZMEX ACTIVITY 28-8-13

AZMEX ACTIVITY 

07/25/13 - 0000~2400hrs - 12 Groups, 60  Bodies -  Rain, washed out roads & sign

3 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio072513.mp3 

Groups of:  9,11,4,5,4,10,4,1,1,5,4P,2

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight Sighting, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout. UDA= Illegal Alien)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

END




07/26/13 - 0000~2400hrs - 13 Groups, 34 Bodies - Load Vehicle & weapon, Group with longarm, weather curtails OPs


8 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio072613.mp3

Groups of:  LV-weapon,2,4,2,1,7,Longarm,7,3P,2,1,2,1

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight Sighting, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout. UDA= Illegal Alien)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

-- 0200 - BP Helicopter tracking suspected "lights out" load vehicle in the desert west of Green Valley.  Vehicle
              stopped by BP agents & subjects found with a pistol.  Disposition unknown

-- 1000 - BP agents tracking a group with a long arm - location & disposition unknown.

END



07/27/13 - 0000~2400hrs - 16 Groups, 62 Bodies - BLM tracking Load Vehicle, "911" call- Mt Hopkins, Weather


3 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio072713.mp3

Groups of: 8,1,11,3,LV,1,1,3,8,2,3,6,9,"911"call,2,2

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight Sighting, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout. UDA= Illegal Alien)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

-- 1200 - BLM Rangers tracking possible load vehicles in the desert near Avra Valley road, south of the Silver Bell
              Mine.  Request for air support - none available - disposition unknown.

-- 2100 - "911" call - lost IA - Mt. Hopkins area - disposition unknown.  

END



07/28/13 - 0000~2400hrs - 17 Groups, 41 Bodies - 2 "Dreamers" in custody, "10-7" body found

5 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio072813.mp3

Groups of: 2 "Dreamers",2,1,1,1,1,3,1,1,1,3,1,"10-7 body,14,1,4,3,

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight Sighting, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout. UDA= Illegal Alien)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

-- 0000 - 2 female IAs claiming "Dreamer Status" taken into custody - Trico & El Tiro, NW of Three Points, AZ
-- 1100 - "10-7" dead body found inside a tractor trailer off of Mariposa Road - circumstances unknown
-- 1600 - BP APSS  (Agent Portable Surveillance System) used to detect smuggling traffic deployed - location withheld 


END
END 



Thursday, September 26, 2013

AZMEX EXTRA 25-8-13

AZMEX EXTRA 25-7-13

Backgrounder from Stratfor.  A look at how things work, Mexico and Central America included.  
As always, agenda driven. 
Not included are the 10K grenades recovered by Mex. army last year. 

Global Arms Markets as Seen Through the Syrian Lens
Security Weekly
THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2013 - 04:04  Print   Text Size 
Stratfor
By Scott Stewart

The many and diverse efforts to arm the various actors in the Syrian civil war are really quite amazing to watch. These efforts are also quite hard to decipher -- and intentionally so -- since many of the arms transfers occur on the murky gray and black arms markets. Indeed, it is quite doubtful that anyone, whether Syrian intelligence, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service or the CIA really has a complete picture of all the channels used to funnel arms into the conflict. Certainly, I cannot hope to catalogue all of them here. However, the efforts to arm all of the factions fighting in Syria do provide a great opportunity to discuss the global arms trade and its various facets.

The Nature of Weapons

To understand the global arms markets we must first understand some critical things about the nature of weapons. First of all, it is important to realize that weapons are durable goods. While certain types of weapons and weapon components have a limited shelf life -- such as battery-coolant units for the FIM-92A Stinger missile -- numerous other weapons remain functional for many decades. It is not unusual to find a militant or a soldier carrying an AK-47 assault rifle manufactured before he was born -- and in many cases even before his father was born.

Because of this durability, weapons provided to the anti-Soviet fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980s are still being used against coalition troops in Afghanistan. But 1980s-era weapons are not the only durable weapons in the theater: The Taliban is also attacking coalition forces in Afghanistan with British Lee-Enfield rifles sent to South Asia during the Victorian era. These antique main battle rifles with their larger cartridges and longer barrels have a demonstrated ability to engage targets at longer distances than the more modern AK-47.

But Afghanistan is not the only place where the durability of weapons is seen. Weapons provided by the United States and the Soviet Union to rebels and governments during Central America's civil wars are still making their way into the arsenals of Mexican drug cartels, and M-40 recoilless rifles provided by the United States to the government of Libya before Moammar Gadhafi's 1969 coup proved to be a very effective weapons system in the battle of Misurata, and today are being shipped from Libya to the rebels in Syria.

Sometimes, weapons can even outlast the countries that manufactured them. East German MPiKMS and MPiKM assault rifles are still floating around the world's arms markets more than two decades after the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist.

It is important to recognize that ammunition is also an important facet of the global arms trade. Ammunition tends to be less durable than weapons, and is also consumed at high rates. This means that while weapons are durable, they can only remain functional if sufficient supplies of the appropriate ammunition are available. One of the reasons weapons like the AK-47 have proliferated so widely is the ease and low cost of finding compatible ammunition for the rifles. In the case of Syria, the rebels can both purchase ammunition for weapons like the AK-47 and seize it from the government.

Weapons are also fungible, or interchangeable. An AK-47-style rifle manufactured in Russia is essentially the same as one manufactured in Pakistan or Egypt, and an M16-style rifle manufactured in China can easily replace an M16 manufactured in the United States. Indeed, in a place like Afghanistan or Syria, it is not unusual to find AK-47-style rifles manufactured in various countries and decades being carried within the same rebel group. Journalist C.J. Chivers has done a wonderful job chronicling the proliferation of the AK-47 in his book The Gun and in his blog.

External link:
The Gun blog
Stratfor is not responsible for the content of other websites.

Weapons are also goods that tend to retain their value and are easily converted to cash. Combined with their durability and fungibility, this explains why they so readily flow to conflict zones where there is an increased demand for them. Buying weapons from a place where there is an oversupply and then selling them in a place where there is a heavy demand can be highly lucrative. After the fall of the Soviet Union, arms merchants like Viktor Bout became incredibly rich buying excess Soviet weapons for very low prices in places like Ukraine and selling them for much higher prices in places like Liberia. In addition to cash, guns can also be exchanged for commodities such as diamonds, drugs and even sugar.

Arms Markets

There are three general types of markets for arms. The first is the legal arms market, where weapons are bought and sold in accordance with national and international law. The legal arms market also includes military aid sent by one government to another in accordance with international law. The parties in a legal arms deal will file the proper paperwork, including end-user certificates, noting what is being sold, who is selling it and to whom it is being sold. There is a clear understanding of who is getting what and under what conditions.

The second arms market is that involving illicit, or gray arms. Gray arms transactions involve a deceptive legal arms transaction in which legally purchased arms are shifted into the hands of someone other than the purported, legal recipient. One of the classic ways to do this is to either falsify an end-user certificate, deceiving the seller, or to bribe an official in the purported destination country to sign an end-user certificate but then allow the shipment of arms to pass through his country to a third location. This type of transaction is frequently used in cases where there are international arms embargoes against a particular country (like Liberia) or where it is illegal to sell arms to a militant group such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

In one example of a gray arms deal, Ukrainian small arms were sold to Ivory Coast on paper but were then transferred in violation of U.N. arms embargoes to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Another example occurred when the government of Peru purchased thousands of surplus East German assault rifles from Jordan on the legal arms market ostensibly for the Peruvian military. Those rifles then slipped into the gray arms world and were dropped at airstrips in the jungles of Colombia for use by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The third market is the illegal, or black arms market. In this market, the weapons are clearly transferred in violation of national and international law and there is no attempt to cover the impropriety with devices such as forged end-user certificates. Black arms transfers can involve regimes, such as when the Gadhafi regime in Libya furnished weapons to terrorist groups like the Abu Nidal Organization or the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Nation-states will often use the gray and black arms markets in order to deniably support allies, undermine opponents or otherwise pursue their national interests. This was clearly revealed in the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s, though Iran-Contra only scratched the surface of the untold tons of arms that were smuggled during the Cold War. But other times, the black arms market can involve non-state actors or even organized crime groups. The transfer of Libyan weapons from militia groups to Tuareg rebels in Mali or of weapons from the conflicts in the Balkans to criminals in Europe exemplify this.

Some weapons are also made in an unregulated manner, such as the homemade rockets and mortars made by Palestinian militant groups or the Syrian resistance. The cottage industry of illicit arms manufacture in Darra Adam Khel Pakistan has long supplied militants and tribesmen on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Weapons Flows to Syria

Currently, Syrian President Bashar al Assad's regime is being supplied through the legal arms market by Russia. At the same time, they are being supplied by Iran, but since Iran is forbidden from exporting weapons under U.N. Resolution 1747, these transactions are illegal or occurring on the black arms market.

Similarly, the Iranian and Syrian weapons provided to the al Assad regime's ally, Hezbollah, are illegal under U.N. Resolution 1701. Advanced Chinese weapons have also found their way into Hezbollah's arsenal, such as the C-802 anti-ship missile used in a July 2006 attack on the Israeli corvette Hanit. It appears Hezbollah received these weapons from Iran, which has purchased some of the missiles from China and manufactured its own copies of the missile.

The rebel groups in Syria are quite fractured. The weapon flows to these groups reflect this diversity, as do the number of different actors arming them. To date, the United States and EU countries have resisted directly arming the rebels, but covert efforts facilitate the flow of arms from other parties to the rebels have been going on for well over a year now.

One of the functions of the U.S. presence in Benghazi, Libya, was to help facilitate the flow of Libyan arms to Syrian rebels. From the American point of view, sending weapons to Syria not only helps the rebels there, but every SA-7b shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile sent to Syria to be fired at a regime helicopter or MiG fighter is one less missile that can find its way into the hands of militants in the region. Promoting the flow of weapons out of Libya to Syria also makes weapons in Libya much more expensive, and can therefore reduce the ability of local militia groups -- or regional militant groups such as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb or Boko Haram -- to procure weapons from Libya.

Even though the U.S. and Turkish governments are involved in the process of passing arms from Libya to Syria, it is nonetheless a black arms channel. The Austrian Steyr Aug rifles and Swiss-made hand grenades in rebel hands were purchased by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates through legal channels but then diverted to the Syrian rebels several years later via black market channels. I have not seen any of the documentation pertaining to the Croatian weapons sold to Saudi Arabia and then channeled to the Syrian rebels via Jordan, so it is difficult to judge if they were arms sold legally to the Saudis and then diverted via an illicit gray arms transaction or if the entire transfer was clandestine and hidden in black arms channels.

Obviously, the weapons supplied by the Islamic State of Iraq to Jabhat al-Nusra and other jihadist rebel groups is another case of black arms transfers. But some rebel groups have purchased weapons with cash on the black market in Lebanon and Turkey while other rebel groups have even purchased weapons from corrupt officials in the Syrian regime. Of course, the rebels have also captured some sizable arms depots from the government.

As one steps back and looks at the big picture, it becomes clear that as these diverse channels move instruments of war into Syria, their individual themes are being woven together to orchestrate a terrible symphony of death. It may be years before the symphony is over in Syria, but rest assured that shortly after its final crescendo, economic forces will work to ensure that the durable and fungible weapons from this theater of war begin to make their way to the next global hotspot.

Read more: Global Arms Markets as Seen Through the Syrian Lens | Stratfor 
Follow us: @stratfor on Twitter | Stratfor on Facebook

AZMEX ACTIVITY 15-8-13

AZMEX ACTIVITY 15 AUG 2013

Note:  With some typical photos of armed crossers coming into AZ.  Has been suggested that they may be simply returning arms to BATFE. 


08/15/13 - 0000~2400hrs -28 Groups, 123 Bodies- BP tracking armed "Border Bandits", I-19 Bailout - possibly armed


13 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio081513.mp3

Groups of:  2,3,5,7,2,1,4,3P,5,8,7,6,2,2,4,10,5,7,2,4,4,1,"4 Armed Bandits",1,7,3,4,8

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout, FTY=Failure to Yield)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

-- 1600 - BP agents tracking armed subjects - possible "Border Bandits"
-- 1800 - Omaha aircraft spots 4 possible "Border Bandits"
-- 1900 - "Bailout" - Interstate 19 just north of  Green Valley/Continental Road - subject has "something tucked in his waistband"



Armed "Border Bandits" 

    



BORDER PATROL "10-CODES"  (link) 
         
BORDER VIDEOS & STATISTICS (link)  

WEAPONS INVOLVED INCIDENTS (link)

END
END

AZMEX ACTIVITY 14-8-13

AZMEX ACTIVITY 14 AUG 2013

Note:  Wackenhut is contracted to bring IA's back to border.


NEW
 ! Daily "Border Audio"  Archives now up on    (< click on icon ) 

08/14/13 - 0000~2400hrs -21 Groups, 52 Bodies - Loadout on "Back 9" - Kino Springs, "problems" with IAs on Wackenhut Bus 


10 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio081413.mp3

Groups of:  1,5,1,8,3,1,1,1,3P,3,"911 Call",2,1,1,2P,1,4,5,3,5,1

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout, FTY=Failure to Yield)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

-- 0800 - BP agents tracking a group of IAs on the Kino Springs Golf Course, east of Nogales, AZ
             - probable "loadout" on the "Back 9"
-- 1100 - BP agents tracking 3 "scouts" between the Middle Windmill and Tortuga Butte, NW of Three Points, AZ
-- 1200 - "911 call" - 5 IAs in distress south of the village of Topawa on the Tohono O'odham Reservation
-- 1800 - Wackenhut bus operator reports having "problems" with 5 IA passengers - supervisor dispatched 

END


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

AZMEX ACTIVITY 13-8-13

AZMEX ACTIVITY 13 AUG 2013

From AZ sources

Note:  Do not remember of any successful ultra light interdictions.


NEW
 ! Daily "Border Audio"  Archives now up on    (< click on icon ) 

08/10/13 - 0000~2400hrs - 12 Groups,  39 Bodies - Tracking UltraLight Aircraft - SR286    

5 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio081013.mp3

Groups of:  2,1,6P,1U,12,1,1,5,3,2,1,4,1

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout, FTY=Failure to Yield)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

-- 0400 -  Radar tracking slow moving aircraft (50 knots - probable Ultralight) east of SR286, south of Three Points, AZ.                Omaha aircraft dispatched to interdict aircraft, however search proved negative and was discontinued. 


END



08/11/13 - 0000~2400hrs - 13 Groups, 23 Bodies - 1 Search & Rescue, 2 "911" call - IAs in distress


6 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio081113.mp3

Groups of:  3,3,2,2,1,2,3P,3,"Search & Rescue,1,1,1,"911 call",3, "911 call"

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout, FTY=Failure to Yield)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

-- 0800 - Citizen's report of 3 IAs in her shed on her property.  K-9 agent dispatched - 3 in IAs in custody
-- 1700 - "911" call, 41 miles north of the border on the Tohono O'odham reservation.
               "Pedero" is out of water and out of food.. needs help.  Disposition unknown
-- 2100 - "911" call - IAs in distress - location & dispostion unknown

END



08/12/13 - 0000~2400hrs - 23 Groups, 143 Bodies - "Samaritan" water cache spotted, 2 "quitters" , group of 20+

8 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio081213.mp3

Groups of:  2,2,7,4,1,12,7,17,5,2,1,1,3,1,3,8,3,9P,9,1,20+.13

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout, FTY=Failure to Yield)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

-- 0900 - Omaha aircraft spots a "Samaritan" water cache left on a smuggling trail
-- 1200 - BP agents take 2 "quitters" into custody
-- 2300 - Omaha aircraft reports working a group of 20 IAs - 20 mile north of the Border, NW of the village
              of Sells on the Tohono O'odham reservation. 

END



08/13/13 - 0000~2400hrs - 15 Groups, 92 Bodies - Multiple "Bailouts", Citizen's report of 18 IAs near I-19 Rest Area


7 minutes of condensed audio  (click on link below)  Note change to MP3 audio format 

http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio081313.mp3

Groups of:  1,1,13,5,14,4,3B,5,18,5,18,10,1,3,2,1,10P

(P= "46" Drug Packers, A= Armed individuals, U= UltraLight, LV= Load Vehicle, B=Bailout, FTY=Failure to Yield)

Significant Events in Audio:

-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group could not be determined.

-- Note: excessive temperatures in the desert continue to result in multiple 911 distress calls from Illegal aliens 
             suffering from dehydration. The Border Patrol stated priority mission in the summer time is Search & Rescue,          with enforcement taking a secondary role.

--  Note: Continued monsoon storm conditions limit tracking/detection efforts -  Limited activity/participation by DHS  "High-Flyer" reconnaissance aircraft has been detected during the last week.    

-- 0700 - "46" dope load vehicle"Bailout" - Interstate 19, east frontage road,  KP 27.5, north of Nogales, AZ
-- 1200 - Citizen's report of a group of 18 IAs near Tubac, AZ/ San Pedro river 

END
END