AZMEX UPDATE 27 AUG 2014
One month later: gap still in U.S. Mexico border fence from monsoon
Posted: Aug 27, 2014 8:58 AM EDT
Updated: Aug 27, 2014 10:27 AM EDT
By Maria Hechanova - email
Hole in border fence, as of August 27, 2014. (Source: Tucson News Now)
Hole in the border fence as of July 28, 2014. (Source: Tucson News Now)
Vehicle barricades block the hole in the fence (Source: Tucson News Now)
http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/26381929/one-month-later-gap-still-in-us-mexico-border-fence-from-monsoon
NOGALES, AZ (Tucson News Now) - There is still a big gap in the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Nogales, Arizona just west of the Mariposa Port of Entry.
It has been one month since the monsoon dumped a lot of rain in a small area in a short amount of time. The large amount of rushing water crossed the border and drained from Mexico into the U.S. in this area taking the fence down with it.
Tucson Sector U.S. Border Patrol agents say the reason for the delay is because contractors are waiting to fix the fence when the ground is less saturated.
The estimated repair date is still to be determined, though contractors have already assessed the damage and determined how the repairs need to be made.
Weather-related border fence damage does not happen often. According to officials, the last time something like this took place was back in 2011 in Lukeville, in western Pima County.
Right now, agents are continuing to monitor the section of missing fence in Nogales on the ground and with cameras to make sure there is not a security threat or breach. Though according to one BP agent on the scene there have been people trying to cross over into the U.S. via the hole, on foot.
According to agents, it is an already highly visible spot and no extra resources are necessary to keep it safe. Agents already assigned to the area are just keeping a closer eye on it.
The fence, which agents say can range from 18 to 26 feet tall in the area is made of steel, rebar, and concrete and is set deep in the ground. They say it would not make any sense to put the fence up now, because the foundation would not set correctly or hold up well in the next storm.
It is unclear if any modifications will be made to the original design to make the fence stronger or prevent an event like this from happening again. There is also no word yet on how much the repairs will cost.
END
And then this one;
Former Gulf Cartel leader fights for U.S. citizenship
Posted: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 6:29 pm
LAURA B. MARTINEZ | STAFF WRITER
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/former-gulf-cartel-leader-fights-for-u-s-citizenship/article_cb771d96-2d78-11e4-a9cb-001a4bcf6878.html
Reputed drug kingpin Juan Garcia Abrego is taking the federal government and the state of Texas to court. He wants both agencies to declare him a U.S. citizen.
Although Garcia Abrego claims he was born in Texas, the state and federal governments maintain Garcia Abrego is a Mexican national and that his birth occurred in Matamoros, Mexico.
In October 1996, Garcia Abrego, the original leader of the Gulf Cartel, was found guilty of 22 federal counts that included distributing more than 14 tons of cocaine into the U.S. and laundering more than $10.5 million. He was also ordered to forfeit $350 million to the government.
Garcia Abrego was sentenced to life in prison and is being held at the "SuperMax" federal prison in Florence, Colorado.
According to federal court documents filed last week at a Brownsville federal court, Garcia Abrego wants the government to clarify his status as a U.S. citizen and declare him a citizen of this country.
The documents state Garcia Abrego has tried to get a certified copy of a birth certificate that states he was born Sept. 13, 1944, in La Paloma, Texas.
Court records show that an administrative hearing was held March 13, 2013, regarding the Texas State Register denying Garcia access to a certified copy of the birth certificate "due to information indicating that the certificate was false."
The false birth certificate mentioned in the hearing is one that Garcia Abrego filed in May 1965, labeled as a Texas delayed certificate of birth. It was reportedly filed under the name Juan Garcia.
The state indicates it cannot provide Garcia Abrego with the document declaring him a U.S. citizen because the state has documentation that reveals he was born in Matamoros, records show.
Fred Kowalski, Garcia Abrego's lead attorney, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Garcia Abrego was one of the FBI's "Most Wanted," and prosecutors say he was making $2 billion a year before his arrest in January 1996.
In October 1989, Texas Department of Public Safety narcotics officers seized nine tons of cocaine valued at $1 billion outside Harlingen. The drugs were linked to the Garcia Abrego ring.
A pretrial conference on the case has been scheduled for Dec. 2 before U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen.
end
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Monday, August 18, 2014
AZMEX UPDATE 16-8-14
Note: As the drug cartels go out of business?
AZMEX UPDATE 16 AUG 2014
Note: much cocaine, heroin and meth
$1.6 million in drugs seized at AZ borders in 6 days
12 hours ago • Kimberly Matas Arizona Daily Star
http://tucson.com/news/blogs/police-beat/million-in-drugs-seized-at-az-borders-in-days/article_c9a0f77a-24dc-11e4-bdc4-001a4bcf887a.html
Police Beat blog
In less than a week border officers have confiscated $1.6 million worth of drugs at Arizona ports of entry.
— Wednesday Edson Omar Flores, 40, of San Luis, was arrested at that port of entry for trying to smuggle more than $70,000 worth of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release.
Officers found the drugs after a narcotics detection dog smelled them in the front fender wells of the Oldsmobile sedan Flores was driving.
They found nearly 5 pounds of cocaine worth $47,000, and more than 8 pounds of meth valued at nearly $25,000.
— In separate busts Tuesday, officers at the Nogales port seized more than $186,000 worth of narcotics.
A drug-sniffing dog found nearly 39 pounds of meth worth an estimated $117,000 in both side-walls of a Ford pickup truck bed driven by a 50-year-old man from Hermosillo, Sonora.
Later, officers referred a 32-year-old Tucson woman for further inspection of her Nissan sedan. A drug dog alerted to the flooring of the vehicle where officers found 20 packages of marijuana weighing nearly 139 pounds and worth about $69,000.
— Monday officers made three arrests at two ports and seized $364,000 in narcotics.
Officers at the Nogales port stopped a Toyota sedan driven by a 68-year-old Nogales, Arizona, man and a drug dog hit on a hidden compartment between the front seats. Inside, officers found more than 14 pounds of meth valued in excess of $42,000.
A short time later at the same crossing, officers referred a 49-year-old of Nogales, Sonora, man for further inspection of his Nissan SUV. Again, a drug dog alerted and officers found more than 22 pounds of cocaine worth about $231,000. The drugs were in a non-factory compartment behind the vehicle's airbag. Officers also found a package containing more than 2 pounds of heroin, in excess of $32,000.
That same day, Ramon Conrado Vasquez-Villa, 61, of Coolidge, and 27-year-old Lynda Mara Villa Verdugo, of Mesa, were arrested at the Port of Lukeville when officers found 113 pounds of marijuana in their GMC truck. The drugs were worth an estimated $56,000.
A 73-year-old Coolidge woman also with them was not arrested.
— Sunday evening, officers at the Nogales port searched a GMC SUV driven by a 20-year-old Tucson man and found two packages of heroin, weighing nearly 3 pounds; more than half-a-pound of cocaine; and 25 packages of meth weighing nearly 37 pounds. The combined value of the drugs was more than $160,000.
— On Saturday officers made five drug busts in Nogales.
First they arrested a 39-year-old Mexican man after a drug dog sniffed out 32 pounds of meth worth $96,000 hidden in his Toyota sedan.
Then they arrested a 37-year-old Mexican woman when a drug dog detected narcotics in the suitcases she was carrying across the border. Inside officers found almost $98,000 worth of heroin.
A 24-year-old Glendale woman was arrested Saturday too, after a drug dog alerted officers to nearly 17 pounds of heroin, 8 pounds of meth and 5.5 pounds of cocaine in non-factory compartments above her Suzuki SUV's rear axles. The drugs were worth $321,000.
They also made two pot busts Saturday that totaled almost $90,000.
They found nearly 80 pounds of marijuana within the backseat of a Chevrolet truck driven by a 32-year-old Mexican man. And they found more than 98 pounds of marijuana under the bed of a Ford truck driven by a 25-year-old Mexican man.
— Last Friday drug dogs made two busts at Nogales ports.
In the first, officers found 36 pounds of methamphetamine worth more than $108,000 and nearly 7 pounds of heroin worth more than $98,500 inside the backseats of an Oldsmobile SUV driven by a 20-year-old man from Mexico.
Soon after a 30-year-old Mexican woman tried to cross the border and officers found more than 4 pounds of meth hidden in the crotch of her clothing. The drugs were worth $12,500.
All drugs and vehicles were seized. The suspects were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.
END
AZMEX UPDATE 16 AUG 2014
Note: much cocaine, heroin and meth
$1.6 million in drugs seized at AZ borders in 6 days
12 hours ago • Kimberly Matas Arizona Daily Star
http://tucson.com/news/blogs/police-beat/million-in-drugs-seized-at-az-borders-in-days/article_c9a0f77a-24dc-11e4-bdc4-001a4bcf887a.html
Police Beat blog
In less than a week border officers have confiscated $1.6 million worth of drugs at Arizona ports of entry.
— Wednesday Edson Omar Flores, 40, of San Luis, was arrested at that port of entry for trying to smuggle more than $70,000 worth of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release.
Officers found the drugs after a narcotics detection dog smelled them in the front fender wells of the Oldsmobile sedan Flores was driving.
They found nearly 5 pounds of cocaine worth $47,000, and more than 8 pounds of meth valued at nearly $25,000.
— In separate busts Tuesday, officers at the Nogales port seized more than $186,000 worth of narcotics.
A drug-sniffing dog found nearly 39 pounds of meth worth an estimated $117,000 in both side-walls of a Ford pickup truck bed driven by a 50-year-old man from Hermosillo, Sonora.
Later, officers referred a 32-year-old Tucson woman for further inspection of her Nissan sedan. A drug dog alerted to the flooring of the vehicle where officers found 20 packages of marijuana weighing nearly 139 pounds and worth about $69,000.
— Monday officers made three arrests at two ports and seized $364,000 in narcotics.
Officers at the Nogales port stopped a Toyota sedan driven by a 68-year-old Nogales, Arizona, man and a drug dog hit on a hidden compartment between the front seats. Inside, officers found more than 14 pounds of meth valued in excess of $42,000.
A short time later at the same crossing, officers referred a 49-year-old of Nogales, Sonora, man for further inspection of his Nissan SUV. Again, a drug dog alerted and officers found more than 22 pounds of cocaine worth about $231,000. The drugs were in a non-factory compartment behind the vehicle's airbag. Officers also found a package containing more than 2 pounds of heroin, in excess of $32,000.
That same day, Ramon Conrado Vasquez-Villa, 61, of Coolidge, and 27-year-old Lynda Mara Villa Verdugo, of Mesa, were arrested at the Port of Lukeville when officers found 113 pounds of marijuana in their GMC truck. The drugs were worth an estimated $56,000.
A 73-year-old Coolidge woman also with them was not arrested.
— Sunday evening, officers at the Nogales port searched a GMC SUV driven by a 20-year-old Tucson man and found two packages of heroin, weighing nearly 3 pounds; more than half-a-pound of cocaine; and 25 packages of meth weighing nearly 37 pounds. The combined value of the drugs was more than $160,000.
— On Saturday officers made five drug busts in Nogales.
First they arrested a 39-year-old Mexican man after a drug dog sniffed out 32 pounds of meth worth $96,000 hidden in his Toyota sedan.
Then they arrested a 37-year-old Mexican woman when a drug dog detected narcotics in the suitcases she was carrying across the border. Inside officers found almost $98,000 worth of heroin.
A 24-year-old Glendale woman was arrested Saturday too, after a drug dog alerted officers to nearly 17 pounds of heroin, 8 pounds of meth and 5.5 pounds of cocaine in non-factory compartments above her Suzuki SUV's rear axles. The drugs were worth $321,000.
They also made two pot busts Saturday that totaled almost $90,000.
They found nearly 80 pounds of marijuana within the backseat of a Chevrolet truck driven by a 32-year-old Mexican man. And they found more than 98 pounds of marijuana under the bed of a Ford truck driven by a 25-year-old Mexican man.
— Last Friday drug dogs made two busts at Nogales ports.
In the first, officers found 36 pounds of methamphetamine worth more than $108,000 and nearly 7 pounds of heroin worth more than $98,500 inside the backseats of an Oldsmobile SUV driven by a 20-year-old man from Mexico.
Soon after a 30-year-old Mexican woman tried to cross the border and officers found more than 4 pounds of meth hidden in the crotch of her clothing. The drugs were worth $12,500.
All drugs and vehicles were seized. The suspects were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.
END
AZMEX POLICY2 12-8-14
AZMEX POLICY 2 12 AUG 2012
Comment: (A bit harsh and politically incorrect) No, don't think so. Way off target.
BTW, little mention of heroin, meth, etc. which has grown to a very significant problem.
Perhaps more in the way of wishful thinking?
Must also remember the cartels very successful business plans on hostile takeovers.
No doubt to be facilitated by importation of more gang bangers.
Or, is it "children" fleeing law enforcement and rival gangs?
Ending the prohibition of the 1920's ended organized crime? Chicago prime example of not.
Those who have spent time in some of the "producing" lands will remember there was major violence and other problems long before the current "war on drugs". Also for example, in both Afghanistan and Columbia the drug trade funds the murderous insurrections. Not to ignore the cartels funded by the "American" doper.
Does America and the world really need more doper parasites?
Thx
US Marijuana Legalization Already Weakening Mexican Cartels, Violence Expected to Decline
Cathy Reisenwitz | Aug 11, 2014
http://townhall.com/columnists/cathyreisenwitz/2014/08/11/us-marijuana-legalization-already-weakening-mexican-cartels-violence-expected-to-decline-n1876088/page/full
America's first foray into rolling back prohibition 2.0 is barely underway, and already marijuana prices have dropped low enough to convince some cartel farmers in Mexico to abandon the crop. Mere months after two US states legalized marijuana sales, five Nobel Prize-winning economists released a UN report recommending that countries end their war on drugs. It would seem they were onto something. But in order to further decrease drug-trade violence in so-called producer states, the US first needs to legalize marijuana, but then also the US must stop using the UN to pressure producer countries into supply-based drug prohibition.
Latin America is the largest global exporter of cannabis and cocaine. In 2011 the DOJ's now-shuttered National Drug Intelligence Center found that the top cartels controlled the majority of drug trade in marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine in over 1,000 US cities.
Research into black markets shows that producer countries experience more violence than consumer countries. In essence, the global war on drugs is a UN scheme to shrug drug war costs off rich countries' shoulders and onto poor Latin American countries, with horrifyingly violent results. Much of the recent child migrant crisis is a direct result of children fleeing cartel violence and conscription into criminal gangs.
When drug prices are high, cartels will step up and produce. By keeping demand for cannabis and cocaine high, but supply low, the US in essence forced the Latin America economy to revolve around drugs. Under prohibition, there is no more profitable export. And of course violence proliferates in illegal industries. So in countries where the dominant export is illegal, violence will be endemic.
That's exactly what the five economists found.
Every single one of the 20 cities with the highest murder rates in the world are in Latin America. Half of the top 10 global kidnapping hotspots are Latin American countries. Time magazine reports that the violence in the murder capital of the world, San Pedro Sula, Honduras, is due to the influx of Mexican drug cartels that funnel U.S.-bound drugs through the country. The cartels are also responsible for an increase in "atrocious crimes" like decapitation, usually used against rival gangs.
Ending the Drug Wars describes drug prohibition as "a transfer of the costs of the drug problem from consumer to producer and transit countries." It references a report called Drugs and Democracy: Toward a Paradigm Shift by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, headed by former Latin American presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Cesar Gaviria and Ernesto Zedillo found that Latin America's willingness to cave to first-world pressure has had horrific results, including:
A rise in organized crime caused both by the international narcotics trade and by the growing control exercised by criminal groups over domestic markets and territories
A growth in unacceptable levels of drug-related violence affecting the whole of society and, in particular, the poor and the young
The criminalization of politics and the politicization of crime, as well as the proliferation of the linkages between them, as reflected in the infiltration of democratic institutions by organized crime
The corruption of public servants, the judicial system, governments, the political system and, especially the police forces in charge of enforcing law and orders
The 200-percent growth rate of the illegal drug market between 1994 and 2008 explains roughly 25 percent of the current homicide rate in Colombia, according to recent research. That means Colombia sees about 3,800 more homicides per year on average associated with the war on drugs.
But when drug prices drop, the cartels will move onto other schemes. VICE News asked retired federal agent Terry Nelson whether legalization was hurting the cartels. "The cartels are criminal organizations that were making as much as 35-40 percent of their income from marijuana," Nelson said, "They aren't able to move as much cannabis inside the US now."
America, the United Kingdom and other wealthy states are epicenters of demand. Not only do demand states prohibit drug production and sales within their borders, but have traditionally used the UN to bully producer countries to do the same through moves such as the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 or the US annual certification process.
And for what? The report points out that worldwide drug prohibition has succeeded in raising prices on illicit drugs. This may have impacted rates of use in consumer nations. Even if higher prices suppress demand, for which there's little evidence, there is simply no way to look at the worldwide cost of prohibition as being worth that possible outcome.
"There is now a new willingness among certain states, particularly in Latin America, to be vocal about the inherent problems within the system and to try to extricate themselves from the global drug war quagmires," according to Ending the Drug Wars.
Ending the Drug Wars acknowledges the "microeconomic contradictions inherent in the supply-centric model of control." It calls out the UN for trying to "enforce a uniform set of prohibitionist oriented policies often at the expense of other, arguably more effective policies that incorporate broad frameworks of public health and illicit market management."
However, the ultimately unresolvable problem with prohibition is that:
In a world where demand remains relatively constant, suppressing supply can have short-run price effects. However, in a footloose industry like illicit drugs, these price increases incentivise a new rise in supply, via shifting commodity supply chains. This then feeds back into lower prices and an eventual return to a market equilibrium similar to that which existed prior to the supply-reduction intervention.
Fixing this problem might be the most exciting part about ending America's war on cannabis. Prices will continue to drop as American growth flourishes. Get ready for cheap, high-quality weed. And as prices drop and the supply side moves into the white market,cartels will get out of the game. And just as ending alcohol prohibition greatly diminished the size, influence, and brutality of organized crime, so will legalizing weed diminish the size, influence, and brutality of Mexican cartels.
As the epicenters of supply, Latin American countries resemble America's inner cities, wracked with violent crime and corruption. Demand countries, however, resemble America's suburbs, where the size and scope of the violence pales in comparison. Considering the power wielded by rich countries compared with poor ones, it shouldn't be surprising that they'd be successful in using international pressure to turn poor countries into lawless killing fields. What's galling is that they would choose to use their power this way, and get away with it for decades.
Prohibition doesn't work. But the way it doesn't work varies greatly depending on whether a state is primarily a producer or a consumer of illicit substances. Stopping international pressure on producer countries is the first step to a fairer, more effective international approach to drugs.
fin
Comment: (A bit harsh and politically incorrect) No, don't think so. Way off target.
BTW, little mention of heroin, meth, etc. which has grown to a very significant problem.
Perhaps more in the way of wishful thinking?
Must also remember the cartels very successful business plans on hostile takeovers.
No doubt to be facilitated by importation of more gang bangers.
Or, is it "children" fleeing law enforcement and rival gangs?
Ending the prohibition of the 1920's ended organized crime? Chicago prime example of not.
Those who have spent time in some of the "producing" lands will remember there was major violence and other problems long before the current "war on drugs". Also for example, in both Afghanistan and Columbia the drug trade funds the murderous insurrections. Not to ignore the cartels funded by the "American" doper.
Does America and the world really need more doper parasites?
Thx
US Marijuana Legalization Already Weakening Mexican Cartels, Violence Expected to Decline
Cathy Reisenwitz | Aug 11, 2014
http://townhall.com/columnists/cathyreisenwitz/2014/08/11/us-marijuana-legalization-already-weakening-mexican-cartels-violence-expected-to-decline-n1876088/page/full
America's first foray into rolling back prohibition 2.0 is barely underway, and already marijuana prices have dropped low enough to convince some cartel farmers in Mexico to abandon the crop. Mere months after two US states legalized marijuana sales, five Nobel Prize-winning economists released a UN report recommending that countries end their war on drugs. It would seem they were onto something. But in order to further decrease drug-trade violence in so-called producer states, the US first needs to legalize marijuana, but then also the US must stop using the UN to pressure producer countries into supply-based drug prohibition.
Latin America is the largest global exporter of cannabis and cocaine. In 2011 the DOJ's now-shuttered National Drug Intelligence Center found that the top cartels controlled the majority of drug trade in marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine in over 1,000 US cities.
Research into black markets shows that producer countries experience more violence than consumer countries. In essence, the global war on drugs is a UN scheme to shrug drug war costs off rich countries' shoulders and onto poor Latin American countries, with horrifyingly violent results. Much of the recent child migrant crisis is a direct result of children fleeing cartel violence and conscription into criminal gangs.
When drug prices are high, cartels will step up and produce. By keeping demand for cannabis and cocaine high, but supply low, the US in essence forced the Latin America economy to revolve around drugs. Under prohibition, there is no more profitable export. And of course violence proliferates in illegal industries. So in countries where the dominant export is illegal, violence will be endemic.
That's exactly what the five economists found.
Every single one of the 20 cities with the highest murder rates in the world are in Latin America. Half of the top 10 global kidnapping hotspots are Latin American countries. Time magazine reports that the violence in the murder capital of the world, San Pedro Sula, Honduras, is due to the influx of Mexican drug cartels that funnel U.S.-bound drugs through the country. The cartels are also responsible for an increase in "atrocious crimes" like decapitation, usually used against rival gangs.
Ending the Drug Wars describes drug prohibition as "a transfer of the costs of the drug problem from consumer to producer and transit countries." It references a report called Drugs and Democracy: Toward a Paradigm Shift by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, headed by former Latin American presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Cesar Gaviria and Ernesto Zedillo found that Latin America's willingness to cave to first-world pressure has had horrific results, including:
A rise in organized crime caused both by the international narcotics trade and by the growing control exercised by criminal groups over domestic markets and territories
A growth in unacceptable levels of drug-related violence affecting the whole of society and, in particular, the poor and the young
The criminalization of politics and the politicization of crime, as well as the proliferation of the linkages between them, as reflected in the infiltration of democratic institutions by organized crime
The corruption of public servants, the judicial system, governments, the political system and, especially the police forces in charge of enforcing law and orders
The 200-percent growth rate of the illegal drug market between 1994 and 2008 explains roughly 25 percent of the current homicide rate in Colombia, according to recent research. That means Colombia sees about 3,800 more homicides per year on average associated with the war on drugs.
But when drug prices drop, the cartels will move onto other schemes. VICE News asked retired federal agent Terry Nelson whether legalization was hurting the cartels. "The cartels are criminal organizations that were making as much as 35-40 percent of their income from marijuana," Nelson said, "They aren't able to move as much cannabis inside the US now."
America, the United Kingdom and other wealthy states are epicenters of demand. Not only do demand states prohibit drug production and sales within their borders, but have traditionally used the UN to bully producer countries to do the same through moves such as the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 or the US annual certification process.
And for what? The report points out that worldwide drug prohibition has succeeded in raising prices on illicit drugs. This may have impacted rates of use in consumer nations. Even if higher prices suppress demand, for which there's little evidence, there is simply no way to look at the worldwide cost of prohibition as being worth that possible outcome.
"There is now a new willingness among certain states, particularly in Latin America, to be vocal about the inherent problems within the system and to try to extricate themselves from the global drug war quagmires," according to Ending the Drug Wars.
Ending the Drug Wars acknowledges the "microeconomic contradictions inherent in the supply-centric model of control." It calls out the UN for trying to "enforce a uniform set of prohibitionist oriented policies often at the expense of other, arguably more effective policies that incorporate broad frameworks of public health and illicit market management."
However, the ultimately unresolvable problem with prohibition is that:
In a world where demand remains relatively constant, suppressing supply can have short-run price effects. However, in a footloose industry like illicit drugs, these price increases incentivise a new rise in supply, via shifting commodity supply chains. This then feeds back into lower prices and an eventual return to a market equilibrium similar to that which existed prior to the supply-reduction intervention.
Fixing this problem might be the most exciting part about ending America's war on cannabis. Prices will continue to drop as American growth flourishes. Get ready for cheap, high-quality weed. And as prices drop and the supply side moves into the white market,cartels will get out of the game. And just as ending alcohol prohibition greatly diminished the size, influence, and brutality of organized crime, so will legalizing weed diminish the size, influence, and brutality of Mexican cartels.
As the epicenters of supply, Latin American countries resemble America's inner cities, wracked with violent crime and corruption. Demand countries, however, resemble America's suburbs, where the size and scope of the violence pales in comparison. Considering the power wielded by rich countries compared with poor ones, it shouldn't be surprising that they'd be successful in using international pressure to turn poor countries into lawless killing fields. What's galling is that they would choose to use their power this way, and get away with it for decades.
Prohibition doesn't work. But the way it doesn't work varies greatly depending on whether a state is primarily a producer or a consumer of illicit substances. Stopping international pressure on producer countries is the first step to a fairer, more effective international approach to drugs.
fin
Friday, August 15, 2014
AZMEX F&F EXTRA 12-8-14
AZMEX F&F EXTRA 12 AUG 2014
An Open Letter to the United States Congress
Jay Dobyns | Aug 11, 2014
http://townhall.com/columnists/jaydobyns/2014/08/11/an-open-letter-to-the-united-states-congress-n1877172?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm
Editor's note: The original version of this column was published on August 10, 2014 at JayDobyns.com.To view ATF investigation documents related to this column, please click here.
To the Honorable Members of the Senate and House of Representatives:
My name is Jay Dobyns. In January of this year, I retired from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after twenty-seven years of decorated service.
Today is the six-year anniversary of the arson of my home. My wife and two children were inside when the fire was set. They were lucky to escape and survive, although my home and all of our belongings were destroyed by that criminal act.
Leading up to that conclusive and somewhat predictable event, my family and I had already endured years and dozens of credible and validated death and violence threats issued from violent crime suspects and based on my work as an ATF Agent. Each time those events were summarily dismissed by ATF's leadership as unworthy of attention.
After investigating the August 10, 2008, arson, two of the nation's leading arson investigators determined that I was not involved. ATF's leadership, both nationally and locally, ignored the determinations of their own experts and maliciously pursued me as the sole suspect, implicitly categorizing me as an ATF agent willing to murder his own family by fire. The managers and executives involved were known to be corrupt, despised by ATF agents, and among those who planned and implemented ATF's Operation Fast and Furious.
Those mangers ignored real-time investigative leads and true suspects while instead illegally recording my telephone calls and attempting to gather intelligence on me. None was to be found because I was not involved and innocent. One of ATF's investigators, an Agent trusted to investigate the Olympic Park bombing, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine High School massacre, the 9/11 terrorist attack and countless other crime scenes told ATF – "I've investigated Jay, he's clean, let me go find the people who did this."
ATF's manager George Gillett (of Fast and Furious infamy) immediately removed that agent and his partner from the case. Their investigation did not fit his agenda.
ATF intentionally scuttled their investigation before contaminating a hand-off to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Under the guidance of the Department of Justice, the most flagrant destruction of one federal agent's career and reputation ever publicly known took place. Now six years later the trail has gone cold and the real arsonist(s) remain at large having attempted to murder a federal agent and his family without pursuit.
When that conduct was challenged in court, both agencies used every tactic available to them, some illegal, some merely unethical and despicable, to cover-up their conduct. Attorneys for the government were fired for their actions in this case; their bad acts never acknowledged or remedied. The unethical tactics used by the government included the destruction and withholding of critical evidence and providing false sworn testimony at depositions and at trial.
The highest levels of leadership at each of these agencies are fully aware of the truth, yet they continue efforts to ensure it is never exposed. That is the system now firmly entrenched at the United States Department of Justice and at ATF – do anything necessary to do to keep your job, displace blame onto others, and if you must, hide and misrepresent the facts and truth from public and courtroom examination.
I respect the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches defined by our Constitution. As I await the findings of the court with patience and hope, I honor those laws. The truth is going to come out, whether ATF, DOJ, and their leaders Eric Holder and B. Todd Jones, care for it or not.
My biggest disappointment is that facts and evidence revealed during my lawsuit have been publicly available and brought to your attention for a considerable amount of time. Our nation's elected officials, appointed Justice Department and ATF leaders, mid-level managers, federal prosecutors, and every internal ethics mechanism within those agencies, just doesn't care.
Those agencies and their leaders have felt no pressure from you on this matter, thus, no inclination to do anything about ATF scuttling the investigation of the attempted murder of an agent and his family, or ATF's calculated effort to place the crime on my shoulders. I say "ATF" because when ATF managers conduct themselves in this manner and ATF executive leadership becomes aware of it yet fails to enact discipline, terminate employment or refer internal crimes for prosecution, then ATF and those executives own and accept those misdeeds as approved methods of operation.
Fortunately, Congress and the judiciary have the power and authority to correct these wrongs. I have faith and confidence that the court will determine what facts are true and render a fair and appropriate conclusion.
But, where is Congress on this? What more is needed? If federal legislators are waiting for the court to put a bow on this situation for them then, in my opinion, you are not fulfilling your duties and passing the buck by displacing your jobs onto the Judge. Evidence is presently available for your attention and action outside of the pending legal proceedings. The court will do their job. Will you? For six years ATF's top brass has acted in the very manner that you publicly criticize them for but, Congress has turned their backs to this situation acting in the exact manner you challenge ATF's leadership for. Attached below is a fraction of the critical information available to you that is not protected by the court. Will you react to it or will hold a double standard; one for your demands of ATF accountability and one for yourselves?
My situation may be unique, in that there was an attempt to murder me and my family, but the nature of cover-up and retaliation that I have suffered is similar to dozens, if not hundreds, of other cases in ATF. As I await the court's resolution of my case, there are clear and decisive measures that Congress can take now to prevent situations like mine from being repeated. To date, none of those have been implemented, and no hearings have been held. DOJ and ATF have been empowered by your exhaustion for seeking the truth. In their eyes, they have won. They have weathered the storm, out-waiting and out-litigating your inquiries.
Given my situation and in the eyes of my family, friends and respected peers, I cannot allow the excuse of frustration or weariness to prevent me from continuing to address this matter, even in retirement.
As evidence of those agencies unchecked brazenness; in May of 2013, one month before the trial regarding my allegations of failure to assist a threatened employee, I was attacked on a commercial airline flight by gang members who recognized me. ATF, the FBI and DOJ once again failed to conduct even the most elementary investigation of that event ignoring the simplest and most basic investigative procedures that would have quickly resulted in arrests and prosecutions. I assume that that they did not react knowing that this new attack on me was outside the scope of the allegations pending before the court and could not be discussed at trial.
I have done all that I can to seek truth, justice and accountability. I am but one man mostly powerless to force or affect change. Please do your part to ensure that no other government employee, no other lawman or woman anywhere, has to suffer the consequences that I have behind their service to America's law enforcement missions.
Respectfully,
Jay Dobyns
FIN
An Open Letter to the United States Congress
Jay Dobyns | Aug 11, 2014
http://townhall.com/columnists/jaydobyns/2014/08/11/an-open-letter-to-the-united-states-congress-n1877172?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm
Editor's note: The original version of this column was published on August 10, 2014 at JayDobyns.com.To view ATF investigation documents related to this column, please click here.
To the Honorable Members of the Senate and House of Representatives:
My name is Jay Dobyns. In January of this year, I retired from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after twenty-seven years of decorated service.
Today is the six-year anniversary of the arson of my home. My wife and two children were inside when the fire was set. They were lucky to escape and survive, although my home and all of our belongings were destroyed by that criminal act.
Leading up to that conclusive and somewhat predictable event, my family and I had already endured years and dozens of credible and validated death and violence threats issued from violent crime suspects and based on my work as an ATF Agent. Each time those events were summarily dismissed by ATF's leadership as unworthy of attention.
After investigating the August 10, 2008, arson, two of the nation's leading arson investigators determined that I was not involved. ATF's leadership, both nationally and locally, ignored the determinations of their own experts and maliciously pursued me as the sole suspect, implicitly categorizing me as an ATF agent willing to murder his own family by fire. The managers and executives involved were known to be corrupt, despised by ATF agents, and among those who planned and implemented ATF's Operation Fast and Furious.
Those mangers ignored real-time investigative leads and true suspects while instead illegally recording my telephone calls and attempting to gather intelligence on me. None was to be found because I was not involved and innocent. One of ATF's investigators, an Agent trusted to investigate the Olympic Park bombing, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine High School massacre, the 9/11 terrorist attack and countless other crime scenes told ATF – "I've investigated Jay, he's clean, let me go find the people who did this."
ATF's manager George Gillett (of Fast and Furious infamy) immediately removed that agent and his partner from the case. Their investigation did not fit his agenda.
ATF intentionally scuttled their investigation before contaminating a hand-off to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Under the guidance of the Department of Justice, the most flagrant destruction of one federal agent's career and reputation ever publicly known took place. Now six years later the trail has gone cold and the real arsonist(s) remain at large having attempted to murder a federal agent and his family without pursuit.
When that conduct was challenged in court, both agencies used every tactic available to them, some illegal, some merely unethical and despicable, to cover-up their conduct. Attorneys for the government were fired for their actions in this case; their bad acts never acknowledged or remedied. The unethical tactics used by the government included the destruction and withholding of critical evidence and providing false sworn testimony at depositions and at trial.
The highest levels of leadership at each of these agencies are fully aware of the truth, yet they continue efforts to ensure it is never exposed. That is the system now firmly entrenched at the United States Department of Justice and at ATF – do anything necessary to do to keep your job, displace blame onto others, and if you must, hide and misrepresent the facts and truth from public and courtroom examination.
I respect the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches defined by our Constitution. As I await the findings of the court with patience and hope, I honor those laws. The truth is going to come out, whether ATF, DOJ, and their leaders Eric Holder and B. Todd Jones, care for it or not.
My biggest disappointment is that facts and evidence revealed during my lawsuit have been publicly available and brought to your attention for a considerable amount of time. Our nation's elected officials, appointed Justice Department and ATF leaders, mid-level managers, federal prosecutors, and every internal ethics mechanism within those agencies, just doesn't care.
Those agencies and their leaders have felt no pressure from you on this matter, thus, no inclination to do anything about ATF scuttling the investigation of the attempted murder of an agent and his family, or ATF's calculated effort to place the crime on my shoulders. I say "ATF" because when ATF managers conduct themselves in this manner and ATF executive leadership becomes aware of it yet fails to enact discipline, terminate employment or refer internal crimes for prosecution, then ATF and those executives own and accept those misdeeds as approved methods of operation.
Fortunately, Congress and the judiciary have the power and authority to correct these wrongs. I have faith and confidence that the court will determine what facts are true and render a fair and appropriate conclusion.
But, where is Congress on this? What more is needed? If federal legislators are waiting for the court to put a bow on this situation for them then, in my opinion, you are not fulfilling your duties and passing the buck by displacing your jobs onto the Judge. Evidence is presently available for your attention and action outside of the pending legal proceedings. The court will do their job. Will you? For six years ATF's top brass has acted in the very manner that you publicly criticize them for but, Congress has turned their backs to this situation acting in the exact manner you challenge ATF's leadership for. Attached below is a fraction of the critical information available to you that is not protected by the court. Will you react to it or will hold a double standard; one for your demands of ATF accountability and one for yourselves?
My situation may be unique, in that there was an attempt to murder me and my family, but the nature of cover-up and retaliation that I have suffered is similar to dozens, if not hundreds, of other cases in ATF. As I await the court's resolution of my case, there are clear and decisive measures that Congress can take now to prevent situations like mine from being repeated. To date, none of those have been implemented, and no hearings have been held. DOJ and ATF have been empowered by your exhaustion for seeking the truth. In their eyes, they have won. They have weathered the storm, out-waiting and out-litigating your inquiries.
Given my situation and in the eyes of my family, friends and respected peers, I cannot allow the excuse of frustration or weariness to prevent me from continuing to address this matter, even in retirement.
As evidence of those agencies unchecked brazenness; in May of 2013, one month before the trial regarding my allegations of failure to assist a threatened employee, I was attacked on a commercial airline flight by gang members who recognized me. ATF, the FBI and DOJ once again failed to conduct even the most elementary investigation of that event ignoring the simplest and most basic investigative procedures that would have quickly resulted in arrests and prosecutions. I assume that that they did not react knowing that this new attack on me was outside the scope of the allegations pending before the court and could not be discussed at trial.
I have done all that I can to seek truth, justice and accountability. I am but one man mostly powerless to force or affect change. Please do your part to ensure that no other government employee, no other lawman or woman anywhere, has to suffer the consequences that I have behind their service to America's law enforcement missions.
Respectfully,
Jay Dobyns
FIN
AZMEX POLICY 12-8-14
AZMEX POLICY 12 AUG 2014
Comment: Arivaca is on a main drug and human smuggling route, up along the Altar Valley.
Get a government job and never work again.
Aug 6, 2014 12:26 AM by Tom McNamara and Michel Marizco
N4T Investigators: Arizona holding up law enforcement comm tower on U.S. border
ARIVACA - Arizona has long been a critic of the federal government's slow efforts in securing the U.S.-Mexico border. But now the News 4 Tucson Investigators have discovered that when it comes to a communications tower crucial to law enforcement on the border, it's Arizona that's slowing things down.
Two years ago, Gov. Jan Brewer drew national attention when she waved her finger into President Obama's face. She was pressing him about an earlier meeting where they had talked about the border and illegal immigration.
But now the News 4 Tucson Investigators have learned, when it comes to a stalled communications tower in Southern Arizona, fingers are waving at the state.
Jim Chilton owns a ranch in the small town of Arivaca. More than a year ago, Govnet, a Scottsdale contractor, started building a communications tower here. It's a cellphone tower, the only one in town. But it's also equipped for law enforcement. The signal for police radios in this area is always spotty. And U.S. Border Patrol officials tell him the agency is considering using the tower, too, though there are no official plans to do so.
What's holding it up is a 250-foot trench.
"Well, currently, the tower's been in for over a year. But Govnet did not have permission to dig a trench from the electrical box that I helped them provide on my private land to the tower," Chilton said.
So the tower is up, but it's powered off a cable and Govnet can't fully equip the massive tower.
"You can't put anything else up there because it doesn't have enough power," said Chilton as he hoisted the thick black cable that's currently lying on the ground. "They just got to get the state approval to run the line up to there and it's taken over a year so far."
Chilton and other residents say they need the tower because law enforcement communications are limited in the sweeping mountain ranges that surround Arivaca.
Karen McCoy is vice president of Govnet.
"It's about 250 feet. We have a right of way that is prohibiting us from digging a conduit to have full power to the site at the moment," she said.
McCoy says an archeology report has already been completed. So why the hold up?
"I'm not sure. It's a process. They say they're waiting for their archeology stamp on it for clearance which has already been done and reports are clear. It's just waiting for them to sign off," she said.
Chilton is frustrated.
"The 250-foot right to dig a trench is currently on the cultural archivist's desk," he said. "The report has been made, it has been completed. All he has to do is sign it."
Late Tuesday, State Land Department Legislative Policy Administrator, Bill Boyd, responded to KVOA's repeated inquiries. He said all applicants are told these types of permissions can take up to 12 months and that Govnet started the process last September. He said some clarification needed to be completed and the agency is now moving forward with the approval. The trench is scheduled to be presented to a review committee on August 14.
end
Comment: Arivaca is on a main drug and human smuggling route, up along the Altar Valley.
Get a government job and never work again.
Aug 6, 2014 12:26 AM by Tom McNamara and Michel Marizco
N4T Investigators: Arizona holding up law enforcement comm tower on U.S. border
ARIVACA - Arizona has long been a critic of the federal government's slow efforts in securing the U.S.-Mexico border. But now the News 4 Tucson Investigators have discovered that when it comes to a communications tower crucial to law enforcement on the border, it's Arizona that's slowing things down.
Two years ago, Gov. Jan Brewer drew national attention when she waved her finger into President Obama's face. She was pressing him about an earlier meeting where they had talked about the border and illegal immigration.
But now the News 4 Tucson Investigators have learned, when it comes to a stalled communications tower in Southern Arizona, fingers are waving at the state.
Jim Chilton owns a ranch in the small town of Arivaca. More than a year ago, Govnet, a Scottsdale contractor, started building a communications tower here. It's a cellphone tower, the only one in town. But it's also equipped for law enforcement. The signal for police radios in this area is always spotty. And U.S. Border Patrol officials tell him the agency is considering using the tower, too, though there are no official plans to do so.
What's holding it up is a 250-foot trench.
"Well, currently, the tower's been in for over a year. But Govnet did not have permission to dig a trench from the electrical box that I helped them provide on my private land to the tower," Chilton said.
So the tower is up, but it's powered off a cable and Govnet can't fully equip the massive tower.
"You can't put anything else up there because it doesn't have enough power," said Chilton as he hoisted the thick black cable that's currently lying on the ground. "They just got to get the state approval to run the line up to there and it's taken over a year so far."
Chilton and other residents say they need the tower because law enforcement communications are limited in the sweeping mountain ranges that surround Arivaca.
Karen McCoy is vice president of Govnet.
"It's about 250 feet. We have a right of way that is prohibiting us from digging a conduit to have full power to the site at the moment," she said.
McCoy says an archeology report has already been completed. So why the hold up?
"I'm not sure. It's a process. They say they're waiting for their archeology stamp on it for clearance which has already been done and reports are clear. It's just waiting for them to sign off," she said.
Chilton is frustrated.
"The 250-foot right to dig a trench is currently on the cultural archivist's desk," he said. "The report has been made, it has been completed. All he has to do is sign it."
Late Tuesday, State Land Department Legislative Policy Administrator, Bill Boyd, responded to KVOA's repeated inquiries. He said all applicants are told these types of permissions can take up to 12 months and that Govnet started the process last September. He said some clarification needed to be completed and the agency is now moving forward with the approval. The trench is scheduled to be presented to a review committee on August 14.
end
Monday, August 11, 2014
AZMEX F&F EXTRA 11-8-14
AZMEX F&F EXTRA 11 AUG 2014
Note: "sentenced to three years (2008) and deported in April 2009"
Aug 7, 2014 11:55 PM by Lupita Murillo and Michel Marizco
http://www.kvoa.com/news/n4t-investigators-indicted-ringleader-of-crew-that-killed-border-patrol-agent-had-previous-immigration-violations/
N4T Investigators: Indicted ringleader of crew that killed Border Patrol agent had previous immigration violations
TUCSON, ARIZ. – A seventh man was charged with the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Rosario Rafael Burboa Alvarez pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tucson to charges of first and second degree murder and conspiracy.
According to the indictment filed Wednesday, a grand jury in Tucson accuses Burboa, 30, of recruiting the six men initially charged in Terry's death.
Burboa was already in custody since October 2012 on immigration-related charges when he was charged with Terry's killing. According to charges in a separate federal court case, Burboa was arrested on immigration charges after Border Patrol agents surveilling a ripoff crew encountered him.
He was in the U.S. illegally after he'd been arrested in 2008 in Maricopa County with possession of marijuana with intent to sell. He was sentenced to three years and deported in April 2009.
Terry was part of an elite crew of Border Patrol agents called the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or BORTAC. In December 2010, the BORTAC team was patrolling an area outside of Nogales, Ariz., called Mesquite Seep, hunting for ripoff crews that assault and rob immigrants and smugglers. According to a FBI warrant filed in June 2012, the team interrupted the ripoff crew and arrested one of its members, Rito Osorio Arellanes.
Two nights later, the remaining members of the crew returned to the area. The agents surprised them. The ripoff crew was armed with rifles. Two of those rifles originated from a Phoenix gunstore and were part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms operation called Fast and Furious. The much-criticized operation was supposed to track where weapons turned up at crime scenes but ATF agents had lost track of hundreds of guns. Two AK-47 variants from that operation were found at Terry's murder scene but a FBI ballistics report failed to link the weapons to the rounds that killed the Border Patrol agent.
Operation Fast and Furious led to the resignation of then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke and the reassignment of William Newell, ATF's special agent in charge of the Phoenix office. Attorney General Eric Holder was held in civil contempt of Congress in 2012 after Pres. Obama declared certain details of the operation exempt from release under executive authority.
Terry's cousin, Robert Heyer, spoke with the News 4 Tucson Investigators' Lupita Murillo, Thursday.
"This is great news, the Terry family is very pleased and thankful to the FBI and prosecutors who continue to prosecute this case very aggressively," Heyer said.
Only one man was captured the night of Terry's killing, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in early 2014. His brother, Rito Osorio, was sentenced to eight years for conspiracy in January 2013.
Lionel Portillo Meza was captured in Mexico and extradited to the U.S. last June.
Ivan Soto Barraza was also captured in Mexico and extradited last July. Jesus Rosario Favela Astorga and Heraclio Osorio Arellanes remain fugitives. All hailed from the Mexican state of Sinaloa with roots, and some with previous criminal records, in Phoenix.
Ben Aguilera, who is representing Burboa, said he does not yet know whether the United States will attempt to draw a connection between Fast and Furious and his client.
Fast and Furious has never been mentioned in any of the court paperwork filed in the various defendant's criminal cases.
FIN
Note: "sentenced to three years (2008) and deported in April 2009"
Aug 7, 2014 11:55 PM by Lupita Murillo and Michel Marizco
http://www.kvoa.com/news/n4t-investigators-indicted-ringleader-of-crew-that-killed-border-patrol-agent-had-previous-immigration-violations/
N4T Investigators: Indicted ringleader of crew that killed Border Patrol agent had previous immigration violations
TUCSON, ARIZ. – A seventh man was charged with the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Rosario Rafael Burboa Alvarez pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tucson to charges of first and second degree murder and conspiracy.
According to the indictment filed Wednesday, a grand jury in Tucson accuses Burboa, 30, of recruiting the six men initially charged in Terry's death.
Burboa was already in custody since October 2012 on immigration-related charges when he was charged with Terry's killing. According to charges in a separate federal court case, Burboa was arrested on immigration charges after Border Patrol agents surveilling a ripoff crew encountered him.
He was in the U.S. illegally after he'd been arrested in 2008 in Maricopa County with possession of marijuana with intent to sell. He was sentenced to three years and deported in April 2009.
Terry was part of an elite crew of Border Patrol agents called the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or BORTAC. In December 2010, the BORTAC team was patrolling an area outside of Nogales, Ariz., called Mesquite Seep, hunting for ripoff crews that assault and rob immigrants and smugglers. According to a FBI warrant filed in June 2012, the team interrupted the ripoff crew and arrested one of its members, Rito Osorio Arellanes.
Two nights later, the remaining members of the crew returned to the area. The agents surprised them. The ripoff crew was armed with rifles. Two of those rifles originated from a Phoenix gunstore and were part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms operation called Fast and Furious. The much-criticized operation was supposed to track where weapons turned up at crime scenes but ATF agents had lost track of hundreds of guns. Two AK-47 variants from that operation were found at Terry's murder scene but a FBI ballistics report failed to link the weapons to the rounds that killed the Border Patrol agent.
Operation Fast and Furious led to the resignation of then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke and the reassignment of William Newell, ATF's special agent in charge of the Phoenix office. Attorney General Eric Holder was held in civil contempt of Congress in 2012 after Pres. Obama declared certain details of the operation exempt from release under executive authority.
Terry's cousin, Robert Heyer, spoke with the News 4 Tucson Investigators' Lupita Murillo, Thursday.
"This is great news, the Terry family is very pleased and thankful to the FBI and prosecutors who continue to prosecute this case very aggressively," Heyer said.
Only one man was captured the night of Terry's killing, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in early 2014. His brother, Rito Osorio, was sentenced to eight years for conspiracy in January 2013.
Lionel Portillo Meza was captured in Mexico and extradited to the U.S. last June.
Ivan Soto Barraza was also captured in Mexico and extradited last July. Jesus Rosario Favela Astorga and Heraclio Osorio Arellanes remain fugitives. All hailed from the Mexican state of Sinaloa with roots, and some with previous criminal records, in Phoenix.
Ben Aguilera, who is representing Burboa, said he does not yet know whether the United States will attempt to draw a connection between Fast and Furious and his client.
Fast and Furious has never been mentioned in any of the court paperwork filed in the various defendant's criminal cases.
FIN
AZMEX F&F EXTRA 11-8-14
AZMEX F&F EXTRA 11 AUG 2014
Note: "sentenced to three years (2008) and deported in April 2009"
Aug 7, 2014 11:55 PM by Lupita Murillo and Michel Marizco
http://www.kvoa.com/news/n4t-investigators-indicted-ringleader-of-crew-that-killed-border-patrol-agent-had-previous-immigration-violations/
N4T Investigators: Indicted ringleader of crew that killed Border Patrol agent had previous immigration violations
TUCSON, ARIZ. – A seventh man was charged with the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Rosario Rafael Burboa Alvarez pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tucson to charges of first and second degree murder and conspiracy.
According to the indictment filed Wednesday, a grand jury in Tucson accuses Burboa, 30, of recruiting the six men initially charged in Terry's death.
Burboa was already in custody since October 2012 on immigration-related charges when he was charged with Terry's killing. According to charges in a separate federal court case, Burboa was arrested on immigration charges after Border Patrol agents surveilling a ripoff crew encountered him.
He was in the U.S. illegally after he'd been arrested in 2008 in Maricopa County with possession of marijuana with intent to sell. He was sentenced to three years and deported in April 2009.
Terry was part of an elite crew of Border Patrol agents called the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or BORTAC. In December 2010, the BORTAC team was patrolling an area outside of Nogales, Ariz., called Mesquite Seep, hunting for ripoff crews that assault and rob immigrants and smugglers. According to a FBI warrant filed in June 2012, the team interrupted the ripoff crew and arrested one of its members, Rito Osorio Arellanes.
Two nights later, the remaining members of the crew returned to the area. The agents surprised them. The ripoff crew was armed with rifles. Two of those rifles originated from a Phoenix gunstore and were part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms operation called Fast and Furious. The much-criticized operation was supposed to track where weapons turned up at crime scenes but ATF agents had lost track of hundreds of guns. Two AK-47 variants from that operation were found at Terry's murder scene but a FBI ballistics report failed to link the weapons to the rounds that killed the Border Patrol agent.
Operation Fast and Furious led to the resignation of then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke and the reassignment of William Newell, ATF's special agent in charge of the Phoenix office. Attorney General Eric Holder was held in civil contempt of Congress in 2012 after Pres. Obama declared certain details of the operation exempt from release under executive authority.
Terry's cousin, Robert Heyer, spoke with the News 4 Tucson Investigators' Lupita Murillo, Thursday.
"This is great news, the Terry family is very pleased and thankful to the FBI and prosecutors who continue to prosecute this case very aggressively," Heyer said.
Only one man was captured the night of Terry's killing, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in early 2014. His brother, Rito Osorio, was sentenced to eight years for conspiracy in January 2013.
Lionel Portillo Meza was captured in Mexico and extradited to the U.S. last June.
Ivan Soto Barraza was also captured in Mexico and extradited last July. Jesus Rosario Favela Astorga and Heraclio Osorio Arellanes remain fugitives. All hailed from the Mexican state of Sinaloa with roots, and some with previous criminal records, in Phoenix.
Ben Aguilera, who is representing Burboa, said he does not yet know whether the United States will attempt to draw a connection between Fast and Furious and his client.
Fast and Furious has never been mentioned in any of the court paperwork filed in the various defendant's criminal cases.
FIN
Note: "sentenced to three years (2008) and deported in April 2009"
Aug 7, 2014 11:55 PM by Lupita Murillo and Michel Marizco
http://www.kvoa.com/news/n4t-investigators-indicted-ringleader-of-crew-that-killed-border-patrol-agent-had-previous-immigration-violations/
N4T Investigators: Indicted ringleader of crew that killed Border Patrol agent had previous immigration violations
TUCSON, ARIZ. – A seventh man was charged with the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Rosario Rafael Burboa Alvarez pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tucson to charges of first and second degree murder and conspiracy.
According to the indictment filed Wednesday, a grand jury in Tucson accuses Burboa, 30, of recruiting the six men initially charged in Terry's death.
Burboa was already in custody since October 2012 on immigration-related charges when he was charged with Terry's killing. According to charges in a separate federal court case, Burboa was arrested on immigration charges after Border Patrol agents surveilling a ripoff crew encountered him.
He was in the U.S. illegally after he'd been arrested in 2008 in Maricopa County with possession of marijuana with intent to sell. He was sentenced to three years and deported in April 2009.
Terry was part of an elite crew of Border Patrol agents called the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or BORTAC. In December 2010, the BORTAC team was patrolling an area outside of Nogales, Ariz., called Mesquite Seep, hunting for ripoff crews that assault and rob immigrants and smugglers. According to a FBI warrant filed in June 2012, the team interrupted the ripoff crew and arrested one of its members, Rito Osorio Arellanes.
Two nights later, the remaining members of the crew returned to the area. The agents surprised them. The ripoff crew was armed with rifles. Two of those rifles originated from a Phoenix gunstore and were part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms operation called Fast and Furious. The much-criticized operation was supposed to track where weapons turned up at crime scenes but ATF agents had lost track of hundreds of guns. Two AK-47 variants from that operation were found at Terry's murder scene but a FBI ballistics report failed to link the weapons to the rounds that killed the Border Patrol agent.
Operation Fast and Furious led to the resignation of then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke and the reassignment of William Newell, ATF's special agent in charge of the Phoenix office. Attorney General Eric Holder was held in civil contempt of Congress in 2012 after Pres. Obama declared certain details of the operation exempt from release under executive authority.
Terry's cousin, Robert Heyer, spoke with the News 4 Tucson Investigators' Lupita Murillo, Thursday.
"This is great news, the Terry family is very pleased and thankful to the FBI and prosecutors who continue to prosecute this case very aggressively," Heyer said.
Only one man was captured the night of Terry's killing, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in early 2014. His brother, Rito Osorio, was sentenced to eight years for conspiracy in January 2013.
Lionel Portillo Meza was captured in Mexico and extradited to the U.S. last June.
Ivan Soto Barraza was also captured in Mexico and extradited last July. Jesus Rosario Favela Astorga and Heraclio Osorio Arellanes remain fugitives. All hailed from the Mexican state of Sinaloa with roots, and some with previous criminal records, in Phoenix.
Ben Aguilera, who is representing Burboa, said he does not yet know whether the United States will attempt to draw a connection between Fast and Furious and his client.
Fast and Furious has never been mentioned in any of the court paperwork filed in the various defendant's criminal cases.
FIN
AZMEX I3 8-8-14
AZMEX I3 8 AUG 2014
Note: another report from Homeland Security Today. The "children's crusade" also used to divert resources away from drug runs. Would be very interesting to see the data on the "children", how many young males of gang banger age?
7 Alleged Members Of Human Smuggling Network Arrested In Guatemala
By: Anthony Kimery, Editor-in-Chief
08/07/2014 ( 3:25pm)
http://www.hstoday.us/single-article/7-alleged-members-of-human-smuggling-network-arrested-in-guatemala/ae7283c41c8e33851d517165e0529767.html
Seven alleged members of a suspected human smuggling criminal network linked to multiple human smuggling organizations working along the US and Mexican borders, including Texas and Arizona, were arrested Wednesday in Quetzaltenango by Guatemalan law enforcement officials with the assistance of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Customs and Border Protection.
Two other members of the organization were arrested in Mexican territory, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday.
The "nine individuals are believed to be key members of a confederation of Central American human smuggling organizations that recruit, organize and transport people, including unaccompanied children, from their points of origin in Central and South America to the United States via Arizona and South Texas," DHS said. "This organization has been directly linked with operations where Guatemalans trying to migrate north died during their journey."
During the investigation, DHS said, "multiple bank accounts used by members of this organization were identified. Account movements add up to over $3 million US dollars.
But this is merely a drop in the bucket. Homeland security officials earlier told Homeland Security Today on background that criminal human trafficking organizations smuggling people from Central America have been reaping "multi-millions."
The sources also said Mexican cartels are involved in these operations – "running them as separate smuggling criminal enterprises," one said, noting "there's hardly no criminal operations through Mexico that the cartels aren't involved in -- it's just too damned lucrative ... especially the running of children and families from Central America. The cartels have actively spread the word that they can come to the US and not be deported."
DHS said in its announcement Thursday that, "The operation leading to the arrests in Guatemala was developed jointly by Guatemala's Ministerio Publico and DHS as a result of an initiative that increased information sharing among law enforcement agencies."
The department said there was close coordination between prosecutors from the Guatemala Ministerio Publico and HSI Guatemala Country Attaché Office in targeting these smuggling networks using Guatemalan human smuggling and money laundering laws.
"In addition to arrests," DHS said, "under Guatemalan law, the HSI Guatemala Country Attaché Office is able to facilitate the seizure of assets and finances, including Guatemalan bank accounts, by the government of Guatemala -- effectively neutralizing the smuggler at the point of origin in Central America."
DHS recently announced an ongoing surge operation in the United States to target and dismantle human smuggling operations. "Less than one month into this three-month operation," the department said, "US officials announced that HSI had arrested 191 smugglers and their associates on criminal charges in the United States. US officials also took more than 450 undocumented people into custody and seized nearly $600,000 US dollars in illicit profits from US bank accounts held by human smuggling and drug trafficking organizations."
DSH said, "Human smugglers have no regard for the value of a human life and view the people they smuggle as an expendable business commodity. Smugglers may separate women from their children as another means of extorting more money and in severe cases, hold their human cargo hostage and demand more money from family members as a means to extort higher fees."
In addition, the department said, "Human smugglers often transport their human cargo -- men, women and children -- through desolate terrain without food or water or in trucks or trailers without any ventilation. They also arrange for their human cargo to be taken to drop-houses under deplorable conditions with no way to communicate with relatives or to notify authorities if there is an emergency. Some smuggled aliens have been beaten or raped."
The individuals arrested in Quetzaltenango were: Antonio Rolando Chavez Paxtor, Maricela Isabel Gonzalez Hernandez, Eliseo Alvarado Gonzalez, Marciano Alvarado Gonzalez, Antonio Adonias Gonzalez Hernandez, Genaro Elias Jimenez and Pablo Arnoldo Gomez-Gonzalez.
The two arrested in Mexico are Douglas Ivan Aguilar-Juarez and Milton Rocael Sebastian Cardona.
END
UPDATED
Women escape kidnappers in Nogales, Sonora
Posted: Friday, August 8, 2014 8:46 am
By Curt Prendergast
Nogales International | 0 comments
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/women-escape-kidnappers-in-nogales-sonora/article_28595822-1f13-11e4-9e12-001a4bcf887a.html
A woman escaped her captors in Nogales, Sonora last weekend and led police officers to where her sister remained locked in a room.
On the morning of Aug. 2, police officers responded to Las Mesitas restaurant on Obregon Avenue where a 27-year-old Guatemalan woman who was traveling with her 7-month-old son described being held captive, extorted for about $6,500, and escaping the clutches of her kidnappers only moments before speaking to police, according to a Nogales, Sonora police report.
Her 16-year-old sister was still being held against her will, she told the officers, and led them to the Gardenia Hotel on Technological Avenue, where a man she identified as "Mauricio" was holding her sister.
The woman told police she had paid Mauricio 70,000 quetzales (about $6,500), but he demanded another 40,000 quetzales (about $3,700) to free her. If she refused to pay, Mauricio threatened to take her son, so when the opportunity arose, she escaped and went looking for help.
Police officers visited the hotel and saw two men who began to act suspiciously when they realized the police were watching them, according to the police report.
The two men, Luis Arnulfo Carbajal Roblero, 24, and Hubelin Rios Camey, 28, both natives of the southern Mexico state of Chiapas, tried to hide in the hotel but were arrested and taken into custody after the 27-year-old woman identified them as her former captors.
After the arrest, police found the 16-year-old sister in a room inside the hotel and her account of the events agreed with that of her sister. After the 27-year-old sister escaped, the men kept her locked inside the room while they went out to look for her, she told police.
In February, a Honduran man told Nogales, Sonora police he had been held captive in the Colinas de Yaqui area. Officers found him with his hand cuffed and feet tied in front of a beer store. He told officers he had escaped through the window of a nearby home where two men had held him hostage.
He led officers to the residence, where they found a pistol, two machetes, a baseball bat, three rolls of adhesive tape, and two pairs of handcuffs. No arrests were reported.
END
Note: another report from Homeland Security Today. The "children's crusade" also used to divert resources away from drug runs. Would be very interesting to see the data on the "children", how many young males of gang banger age?
7 Alleged Members Of Human Smuggling Network Arrested In Guatemala
By: Anthony Kimery, Editor-in-Chief
08/07/2014 ( 3:25pm)
http://www.hstoday.us/single-article/7-alleged-members-of-human-smuggling-network-arrested-in-guatemala/ae7283c41c8e33851d517165e0529767.html
Seven alleged members of a suspected human smuggling criminal network linked to multiple human smuggling organizations working along the US and Mexican borders, including Texas and Arizona, were arrested Wednesday in Quetzaltenango by Guatemalan law enforcement officials with the assistance of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Customs and Border Protection.
Two other members of the organization were arrested in Mexican territory, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday.
The "nine individuals are believed to be key members of a confederation of Central American human smuggling organizations that recruit, organize and transport people, including unaccompanied children, from their points of origin in Central and South America to the United States via Arizona and South Texas," DHS said. "This organization has been directly linked with operations where Guatemalans trying to migrate north died during their journey."
During the investigation, DHS said, "multiple bank accounts used by members of this organization were identified. Account movements add up to over $3 million US dollars.
But this is merely a drop in the bucket. Homeland security officials earlier told Homeland Security Today on background that criminal human trafficking organizations smuggling people from Central America have been reaping "multi-millions."
The sources also said Mexican cartels are involved in these operations – "running them as separate smuggling criminal enterprises," one said, noting "there's hardly no criminal operations through Mexico that the cartels aren't involved in -- it's just too damned lucrative ... especially the running of children and families from Central America. The cartels have actively spread the word that they can come to the US and not be deported."
DHS said in its announcement Thursday that, "The operation leading to the arrests in Guatemala was developed jointly by Guatemala's Ministerio Publico and DHS as a result of an initiative that increased information sharing among law enforcement agencies."
The department said there was close coordination between prosecutors from the Guatemala Ministerio Publico and HSI Guatemala Country Attaché Office in targeting these smuggling networks using Guatemalan human smuggling and money laundering laws.
"In addition to arrests," DHS said, "under Guatemalan law, the HSI Guatemala Country Attaché Office is able to facilitate the seizure of assets and finances, including Guatemalan bank accounts, by the government of Guatemala -- effectively neutralizing the smuggler at the point of origin in Central America."
DHS recently announced an ongoing surge operation in the United States to target and dismantle human smuggling operations. "Less than one month into this three-month operation," the department said, "US officials announced that HSI had arrested 191 smugglers and their associates on criminal charges in the United States. US officials also took more than 450 undocumented people into custody and seized nearly $600,000 US dollars in illicit profits from US bank accounts held by human smuggling and drug trafficking organizations."
DSH said, "Human smugglers have no regard for the value of a human life and view the people they smuggle as an expendable business commodity. Smugglers may separate women from their children as another means of extorting more money and in severe cases, hold their human cargo hostage and demand more money from family members as a means to extort higher fees."
In addition, the department said, "Human smugglers often transport their human cargo -- men, women and children -- through desolate terrain without food or water or in trucks or trailers without any ventilation. They also arrange for their human cargo to be taken to drop-houses under deplorable conditions with no way to communicate with relatives or to notify authorities if there is an emergency. Some smuggled aliens have been beaten or raped."
The individuals arrested in Quetzaltenango were: Antonio Rolando Chavez Paxtor, Maricela Isabel Gonzalez Hernandez, Eliseo Alvarado Gonzalez, Marciano Alvarado Gonzalez, Antonio Adonias Gonzalez Hernandez, Genaro Elias Jimenez and Pablo Arnoldo Gomez-Gonzalez.
The two arrested in Mexico are Douglas Ivan Aguilar-Juarez and Milton Rocael Sebastian Cardona.
END
UPDATED
Women escape kidnappers in Nogales, Sonora
Posted: Friday, August 8, 2014 8:46 am
By Curt Prendergast
Nogales International | 0 comments
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/women-escape-kidnappers-in-nogales-sonora/article_28595822-1f13-11e4-9e12-001a4bcf887a.html
A woman escaped her captors in Nogales, Sonora last weekend and led police officers to where her sister remained locked in a room.
On the morning of Aug. 2, police officers responded to Las Mesitas restaurant on Obregon Avenue where a 27-year-old Guatemalan woman who was traveling with her 7-month-old son described being held captive, extorted for about $6,500, and escaping the clutches of her kidnappers only moments before speaking to police, according to a Nogales, Sonora police report.
Her 16-year-old sister was still being held against her will, she told the officers, and led them to the Gardenia Hotel on Technological Avenue, where a man she identified as "Mauricio" was holding her sister.
The woman told police she had paid Mauricio 70,000 quetzales (about $6,500), but he demanded another 40,000 quetzales (about $3,700) to free her. If she refused to pay, Mauricio threatened to take her son, so when the opportunity arose, she escaped and went looking for help.
Police officers visited the hotel and saw two men who began to act suspiciously when they realized the police were watching them, according to the police report.
The two men, Luis Arnulfo Carbajal Roblero, 24, and Hubelin Rios Camey, 28, both natives of the southern Mexico state of Chiapas, tried to hide in the hotel but were arrested and taken into custody after the 27-year-old woman identified them as her former captors.
After the arrest, police found the 16-year-old sister in a room inside the hotel and her account of the events agreed with that of her sister. After the 27-year-old sister escaped, the men kept her locked inside the room while they went out to look for her, she told police.
In February, a Honduran man told Nogales, Sonora police he had been held captive in the Colinas de Yaqui area. Officers found him with his hand cuffed and feet tied in front of a beer store. He told officers he had escaped through the window of a nearby home where two men had held him hostage.
He led officers to the residence, where they found a pistol, two machetes, a baseball bat, three rolls of adhesive tape, and two pairs of handcuffs. No arrests were reported.
END
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
AZMEX ACTIVITY 6-8-14
Note: more from a friend in TXMX
OK for Distribution
Border Audio - McAllen, Texas - 08/05/14 - 81 groups - 707 Bodies
13 Minutes of condensed audio covering a 24 hour period (click on link below)
http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio080514.mp3
Groups of: 20+,11,30,4,7,5,8,2,20+.15+,2,5,2,9,15+,10,4,1,30,3,30,4,3,8,4,2,8,11,2,28,2,4,15,3,2,3,8,2,8,5,8,2,10,8,6,9,3,7,
3,3,3,4,10,20+,11,3,9,4,6,10,10,2,"Bailout",15+,18,8,2,8,"Bailout",4-"Quitters",20,10,13,25,24,7,25,5,5,5-"Packers",7,2
-Significant Events in Audio:
-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group and/or exact location could not be determined.
-- Note: Audio clips are comprised of USBP radio traffic broadcast "in-the-clear" (un-encrypted) from the busy McAllen Sector.
It is estimated that un-encrypted radio traffic comprises less than 30% of the total activity for any given time period.
-- Note: Most of the activity where GPS coordinates are indicated occurred in remote areas at considerable distances north of the border. Activity along
the border/ Rio Grande River is generally referenced using landmarks familiar to agents and pilots (levees, roads, pumps, POEs, sugar cane fields) instead of using GPS coordinates. Most of the larger size groups were detected at the border/Rio Grande River.... having just crossed to the US side or staging on the Mexican side to come across.
24 hour map of USBP activity - McAllen, Texas - 08/0514 - 81 groups - 707 Bodies
FYI : BORDER PATROL "10-CODES" (link)
** Border Patrol Jargon **
• "46" = drugs.. usually marijuana
• "45" = Illegal Aliens
• "IAs" = Illegal Aliens
• "UDAs" = Illegal Aliens
• "UACs" = Unaccompanied Children
• "Bodies" = Illegal Aliens (unless they are really "10-7" (deceased )
• "10-7" = Out of Service - unavailable
• "10-15" = "in custody"
• 10-97" = Begin transport of juvenile/female
• "Quitter" = IA who gives up his trek and wants to turn himself into the Border Patrol
• "Packers", "Mules" = drug smugglers
• "Bailout" = individuals who abscond from a traffic stop
• "Got Aways" - (literally)
• "TBS" = turned back south
• "POE" = Port of Entry
• "The Line" = the US/Mexico International Boundary
• "Omaha", "Liberty", Falcon" = Helicopters and Fixed Wing aircraft
• "Pushing" = tracking and literally "pushing" behind a group
• "USC" = U.S. Citizen
• "BOLO" = BE ON THE LOOKOUT
• "FTY" = Failure to Yield
OK for Distribution
Border Audio - McAllen, Texas - 08/05/14 - 81 groups - 707 Bodies
13 Minutes of condensed audio covering a 24 hour period (click on link below)
http://www.secureborderintel.org/BorderBlotter/BorderAudio080514.mp3
Groups of: 20+,11,30,4,7,5,8,2,20+.15+,2,5,2,9,15+,10,4,1,30,3,30,4,3,8,4,2,8,11,2,28,2,4,15,3,2,3,8,2,8,5,8,2,10,8,6,9,3,7,
3,3,3,4,10,20+,11,3,9,4,6,10,10,2,"Bailout",15+,18,8,2,8,"Bailout",4-"Quitters",20,10,13,25,24,7,25,5,5,5-"Packers",7,2
-Significant Events in Audio:
-- There were MANY groups being worked during this 24 hour period where the size of the group and/or exact location could not be determined.
-- Note: Audio clips are comprised of USBP radio traffic broadcast "in-the-clear" (un-encrypted) from the busy McAllen Sector.
It is estimated that un-encrypted radio traffic comprises less than 30% of the total activity for any given time period.
-- Note: Most of the activity where GPS coordinates are indicated occurred in remote areas at considerable distances north of the border. Activity along
the border/ Rio Grande River is generally referenced using landmarks familiar to agents and pilots (levees, roads, pumps, POEs, sugar cane fields) instead of using GPS coordinates. Most of the larger size groups were detected at the border/Rio Grande River.... having just crossed to the US side or staging on the Mexican side to come across.
24 hour map of USBP activity - McAllen, Texas - 08/0514 - 81 groups - 707 Bodies
FYI : BORDER PATROL "10-CODES" (link)
** Border Patrol Jargon **
• "46" = drugs.. usually marijuana
• "45" = Illegal Aliens
• "IAs" = Illegal Aliens
• "UDAs" = Illegal Aliens
• "UACs" = Unaccompanied Children
• "Bodies" = Illegal Aliens (unless they are really "10-7" (deceased )
• "10-7" = Out of Service - unavailable
• "10-15" = "in custody"
• 10-97" = Begin transport of juvenile/female
• "Quitter" = IA who gives up his trek and wants to turn himself into the Border Patrol
• "Packers", "Mules" = drug smugglers
• "Bailout" = individuals who abscond from a traffic stop
• "Got Aways" - (literally)
• "TBS" = turned back south
• "POE" = Port of Entry
• "The Line" = the US/Mexico International Boundary
• "Omaha", "Liberty", Falcon" = Helicopters and Fixed Wing aircraft
• "Pushing" = tracking and literally "pushing" behind a group
• "USC" = U.S. Citizen
• "BOLO" = BE ON THE LOOKOUT
• "FTY" = Failure to Yield
AZMEX EXTRA 5-8-14
AZMEX EXTRA 5 AUG 2014
Posted August 4, 2014, 1:53 a.m.
Army seizes drugs, cars, and long and short arms
Disclose results of July the Mexican Army in the region.
Reports the activities of Military Zone 45 July in Nogales
Hiram G. Machi
Nogales, Sonora - NUEVO DIA
http://nuevodia.com.mx/seccion/estado/decomisa-ejercito-droga-autos-y-armas-largas-y-cortas
The Ministry of National Defense released the results achieved during his ongoing struggle against drug trafficking and related to actions during the month of July in the jurisdiction of the 45th organized crime. Military Zone, which includes the municipalities of northern Sonora, including Nogales.
Officially informed that there were more than two tons of seized drugs, weapons, rounds of ammunition and the arrest of over 25 people associated with illegal activities.
In the letter sent by the Mexican Army stated that said 27 people were arrested, and the seizure of 116 kilos of methamphetamine and 2,231 kilograms of marijuana; and the seizure of 40 rifles, 20 handguns, 117 magazines, 18 thousand 561 cartridges of different calibers, one fragmentation Grenade and 25 motor vehicles were seized, as well as manual destruction of two airstrips in the mountainous region.
Through the newsletter sent to the media the importance of confidential anonymous tip about illegal activities by making available to the public phones (631) 3130-316, (631) 3521-252 and email 45zm @ mail ratified .sedena.com.mx
end
s
Police find arsenal at Juárez hotel
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
POSTED: 08/05/2014 08:11:50 PM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_26282182/police-find-arsenal-at-juarez-hotel
Chihuahua state investigators found an arsenal in a Juárez hotel during the weekend, officials said.
State police raided the Hotel Montecarlo on Avenida Paseo Triunfo de La Republica in the north Juárez, the state attorney general's office said.
Narcotics investigators obtained a search warrant after receiving information about drug dealing allegedly taking place in the hotel.
Authorities said that police found 13 handguns, four rifles and an Uzi submachine gun as well as ammunition in various rooms and in the lobby of the hotel. Investigators also found marijuana and heroin residue, officials said. The hotel manager Alfonso Rangel Herrera, 29, was arrested.
END
Note: Victim disarmament continues. Very harsh penalties for non cartel citizens for firearm possession.
"It's a program where everyone wins: people get rewarded for voluntarily swapping their firearms while we make sure that guns are out of the hands of criminals,"
Mothers with small children and the elderly were turning in the most weapons, authorities said.
Juarez: More Homes Without Weapons program swaps guns for gift cards
By Lorena Figueroa / El Paso Times
POSTED: 07/20/2014 08:29:21 PM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_26185849/program-swaps-guns-gift-cards
Soldiers with the Juarez Military Garrison inspect and destroy guns turned in by Juarez residents in exchange for grocery gift cards. The program, More Homes Without Weapons allows gun owners to turn in the firearms, no questions asked. ( Lorena Figueroa / El Paso Times)
JUÁREZ >> Mexican authorities are disarming Juárenses with gift cards.
The venture, called More Homes Without Weapons, is an attempt to get guns off the streets and reduce firearm accidents and deaths during domestic violence incidents, which are soaring as a segment of homicides in 2014, according to authorities.
"It's a program where everyone wins: people get rewarded for voluntarily swapping their firearms while we make sure that guns are out of the hands of criminals," said Brig. Gen. Vicente Antonio Hernández Sánchez, commander of the Juárez Military Garrison.
Under the gun-exchange program, people receive 500 pesos, or about $40, on a gift card that can be used at Soriana supermarkets in Juárez for each firearm they turn in with no questions asked. People exchanging rifles or assault weapons can earn two cards.
Uniformed soldiers examine each weapon to determine its worth, before they destroy it on site at an exchange module at Parque Central, in central Juárez.
The program is a national campaign that comes as President Enrique Peña Nieto implements his security strategy against crime.
The federal government, through the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense, or Sedena, reactivated the program this year in the city with the coordination of Juárez and Chihuahua governments as well as the Private Initiative.
The program kicked off July 11 and will continue until authorities run out of the 300,000 pesos, or about $23,000, worth of gift certificates that were donated by the Agencia de Seguridad Integral, a company that provides private security services to people and businesses.
In February there was another gun-exchange program held at the Juárez City Hall for a few weeks. The local government gave 100,000 pesos, about $7,700, to finance it.
Hernández Sánchez said that Juarenses voluntarily turned in 173 handguns and 168 rifles and shotguns between February and last Wednesday.
Since the More Homes Without Weapons campaign began, about 15 people have turned in firearms each day, said Lt. José Alfredo San Martín, who is in charge of the exchange module.
"Most of what we have received so far are low-caliber hand guns and a .30-caliber old carbine from the Mexican Revolution days," he said.
Although they do not qualify to receive a gift card, people have also turned in BB guns, ammunition and gun magazines in hopes of receiving the gift certificate, he added.
Mothers with small children and the elderly were turning in the most weapons, authorities said.
"We do not expect young men who may be involved in criminal activities to give their weapons away, but their mothers, wives or sisters, who are tired of violence and want to live in peace, to do it," Hernández Sánchez said.
Authorities hope the gun-exchange program affects the illicit firearms market, as availability of weapons becomes more limited. They also want to reduce the number of firearm accidents in homes and the use of firearms in domestic violence cases.
Because of strict gun control laws in Mexico, most firearms in the country are obtained on the black market, stolen from police or military, or purchased legally in the U.S. and then smuggled across the border into México.
Private citizens who want to own firearms legally are restricted to having semi-automatic handguns or rifles of a caliber no greater than .380 and .22, respectively, and keep them within their home.
It is a federal crime if private citizens have anything larger than those calibers.
Private citizens also have to travel to Mexico, D.F., to purchase weapons at the only legal gun shop in the country and register them with Sedena.
Although the gun-exchange program is strictly anonymous, some people fear that authorities will ask questions. Most get nervous at the exchange module.
"I was scared and, to be honest with you, ashamed to come. I do not want anyone to think that I am a thug," said Erasmo Morales who, with his wife Martha, went to the module.
Morales asked questions and came back a few minutes later with a shotgun wrapped in plastic bags. He received two gift certificates.
Morales said the weapon belonged to his grandfather, who gave it to him 10 years ago to keep it away from his brothers.
He did not know what to do with the weapon when his grandfather passed away earlier this year, until he heard about the gun-exchange program through the news.
Patricia Andrade was nervous to show the soldiers a pistol she and her husband found three years ago at the home they rent at La Cuesta neighborhood.
Soldiers at the module determined she had turned in a blank pistol and told her she couldn't receive a gift certificate.
They gave her the option to keep it or to leave it at the module to be destroyed.
"Get rid of it and the chance to be used to scare off people," she told the soldiers.
Lorena Figueroa may be reached at 546-6129.
Posted August 4, 2014, 1:53 a.m.
Army seizes drugs, cars, and long and short arms
Disclose results of July the Mexican Army in the region.
Reports the activities of Military Zone 45 July in Nogales
Hiram G. Machi
Nogales, Sonora - NUEVO DIA
http://nuevodia.com.mx/seccion/estado/decomisa-ejercito-droga-autos-y-armas-largas-y-cortas
The Ministry of National Defense released the results achieved during his ongoing struggle against drug trafficking and related to actions during the month of July in the jurisdiction of the 45th organized crime. Military Zone, which includes the municipalities of northern Sonora, including Nogales.
Officially informed that there were more than two tons of seized drugs, weapons, rounds of ammunition and the arrest of over 25 people associated with illegal activities.
In the letter sent by the Mexican Army stated that said 27 people were arrested, and the seizure of 116 kilos of methamphetamine and 2,231 kilograms of marijuana; and the seizure of 40 rifles, 20 handguns, 117 magazines, 18 thousand 561 cartridges of different calibers, one fragmentation Grenade and 25 motor vehicles were seized, as well as manual destruction of two airstrips in the mountainous region.
Through the newsletter sent to the media the importance of confidential anonymous tip about illegal activities by making available to the public phones (631) 3130-316, (631) 3521-252 and email 45zm @ mail ratified .sedena.com.mx
end
s
Police find arsenal at Juárez hotel
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
POSTED: 08/05/2014 08:11:50 PM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_26282182/police-find-arsenal-at-juarez-hotel
Chihuahua state investigators found an arsenal in a Juárez hotel during the weekend, officials said.
State police raided the Hotel Montecarlo on Avenida Paseo Triunfo de La Republica in the north Juárez, the state attorney general's office said.
Narcotics investigators obtained a search warrant after receiving information about drug dealing allegedly taking place in the hotel.
Authorities said that police found 13 handguns, four rifles and an Uzi submachine gun as well as ammunition in various rooms and in the lobby of the hotel. Investigators also found marijuana and heroin residue, officials said. The hotel manager Alfonso Rangel Herrera, 29, was arrested.
END
Note: Victim disarmament continues. Very harsh penalties for non cartel citizens for firearm possession.
"It's a program where everyone wins: people get rewarded for voluntarily swapping their firearms while we make sure that guns are out of the hands of criminals,"
Mothers with small children and the elderly were turning in the most weapons, authorities said.
Juarez: More Homes Without Weapons program swaps guns for gift cards
By Lorena Figueroa / El Paso Times
POSTED: 07/20/2014 08:29:21 PM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_26185849/program-swaps-guns-gift-cards
Soldiers with the Juarez Military Garrison inspect and destroy guns turned in by Juarez residents in exchange for grocery gift cards. The program, More Homes Without Weapons allows gun owners to turn in the firearms, no questions asked. ( Lorena Figueroa / El Paso Times)
JUÁREZ >> Mexican authorities are disarming Juárenses with gift cards.
The venture, called More Homes Without Weapons, is an attempt to get guns off the streets and reduce firearm accidents and deaths during domestic violence incidents, which are soaring as a segment of homicides in 2014, according to authorities.
"It's a program where everyone wins: people get rewarded for voluntarily swapping their firearms while we make sure that guns are out of the hands of criminals," said Brig. Gen. Vicente Antonio Hernández Sánchez, commander of the Juárez Military Garrison.
Under the gun-exchange program, people receive 500 pesos, or about $40, on a gift card that can be used at Soriana supermarkets in Juárez for each firearm they turn in with no questions asked. People exchanging rifles or assault weapons can earn two cards.
Uniformed soldiers examine each weapon to determine its worth, before they destroy it on site at an exchange module at Parque Central, in central Juárez.
The program is a national campaign that comes as President Enrique Peña Nieto implements his security strategy against crime.
The federal government, through the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense, or Sedena, reactivated the program this year in the city with the coordination of Juárez and Chihuahua governments as well as the Private Initiative.
The program kicked off July 11 and will continue until authorities run out of the 300,000 pesos, or about $23,000, worth of gift certificates that were donated by the Agencia de Seguridad Integral, a company that provides private security services to people and businesses.
In February there was another gun-exchange program held at the Juárez City Hall for a few weeks. The local government gave 100,000 pesos, about $7,700, to finance it.
Hernández Sánchez said that Juarenses voluntarily turned in 173 handguns and 168 rifles and shotguns between February and last Wednesday.
Since the More Homes Without Weapons campaign began, about 15 people have turned in firearms each day, said Lt. José Alfredo San Martín, who is in charge of the exchange module.
"Most of what we have received so far are low-caliber hand guns and a .30-caliber old carbine from the Mexican Revolution days," he said.
Although they do not qualify to receive a gift card, people have also turned in BB guns, ammunition and gun magazines in hopes of receiving the gift certificate, he added.
Mothers with small children and the elderly were turning in the most weapons, authorities said.
"We do not expect young men who may be involved in criminal activities to give their weapons away, but their mothers, wives or sisters, who are tired of violence and want to live in peace, to do it," Hernández Sánchez said.
Authorities hope the gun-exchange program affects the illicit firearms market, as availability of weapons becomes more limited. They also want to reduce the number of firearm accidents in homes and the use of firearms in domestic violence cases.
Because of strict gun control laws in Mexico, most firearms in the country are obtained on the black market, stolen from police or military, or purchased legally in the U.S. and then smuggled across the border into México.
Private citizens who want to own firearms legally are restricted to having semi-automatic handguns or rifles of a caliber no greater than .380 and .22, respectively, and keep them within their home.
It is a federal crime if private citizens have anything larger than those calibers.
Private citizens also have to travel to Mexico, D.F., to purchase weapons at the only legal gun shop in the country and register them with Sedena.
Although the gun-exchange program is strictly anonymous, some people fear that authorities will ask questions. Most get nervous at the exchange module.
"I was scared and, to be honest with you, ashamed to come. I do not want anyone to think that I am a thug," said Erasmo Morales who, with his wife Martha, went to the module.
Morales asked questions and came back a few minutes later with a shotgun wrapped in plastic bags. He received two gift certificates.
Morales said the weapon belonged to his grandfather, who gave it to him 10 years ago to keep it away from his brothers.
He did not know what to do with the weapon when his grandfather passed away earlier this year, until he heard about the gun-exchange program through the news.
Patricia Andrade was nervous to show the soldiers a pistol she and her husband found three years ago at the home they rent at La Cuesta neighborhood.
Soldiers at the module determined she had turned in a blank pistol and told her she couldn't receive a gift certificate.
They gave her the option to keep it or to leave it at the module to be destroyed.
"Get rid of it and the chance to be used to scare off people," she told the soldiers.
Lorena Figueroa may be reached at 546-6129.
AZMEX POLICY 5-8-14
AZMEX POLICY 5 AUG 2014
Note: Another look at border issues from Homeland Security Today. Think about subscribing.
Yet another disaster inflicted on the West by washington dc. Those living and working on the ground absolutely disagree with "management".
"This vast area along the US/Mexico border in Arizona is now a haven for criminals,"
Border Security Concerns Linger Over New Mexico National Monument Designation
By: Anthony Kimery, Editor-in-Chief
08/05/2014 ( 8:03am)
http://www.hstoday.us/single-article/border-security-concerns-linger-over-new-mexico-national-monument-designation/637623add7fb82e9800b387a33271de2.html
On May 21, President Obama designated a new national monument area in southern New Mexico, the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, which comprises 500,000 acres near the US-Mexico border, half of which will be set aside as "wilderness."
The designation ignited heated debate among supporters of the designation and opponents who say environmental and other regulations that come with the designation will prevent Border Patrol from conducting border enforcement operations within the Organ Mountains area.
The 180 miles of New Mexico's southern border are designated as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas by the Department of Justice.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and fellow Republicans quickly decried the designation, saying it will impair Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) abilities to enforce drug-trafficking and human smuggling in the area, although Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, DC said "This designation will in no way limit our ability to perform our important border security mission, and in fact provides important flexibility as we work to meet this ongoing priority."
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and New Mexico law enforcement authorities said Border Patrol activities are allowed and unaffected by a monument designation.
However, Border Patrol agents, CBP officers and Southwest border law enforcement officials in recent years have complained that border enforcement activities continue to be impeded and delayed on federal lands because of a variety of regulations and environmental restrictions on use of the lands.
At a hearing last month on Obama's executive proclamation designating the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks a National Monument and its implications for border security convened by House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency Chairman Jeff Duncan (R-SC), 17-year Border Patrol agent Brandon Judd, who also is President of the National Border Patrol Council, and 14-year Doña Ana County, New Mexico Sheriff Todd Garrison, who also is chairman of the Southwest Border Sheriffs' Association, told the subcommittee earfuls of concerns about the border security threats they fear will emanate from this latest wilderness designation.
The President's designation of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks a National Monument "ignored legislation introduced in both chambers of Congress, which had buy-in and support from a broad coalition of state and local stakeholders and constituencies. Specifically, Rep. Steve Pearce introduced HR 995 which would have established an area in the Organ Mountains as a national monument, while granting law enforcement and other emergency personnel 'unfettered access' to the monument," Duncan said, noting that Pearce's "bill had letters of support from the Governor of New Mexico, the Las Cruces Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Western Heritage Alliance, Dona Ana Soil and Water Conservation District, Mesilla Valley Sportsmen's Alliance, the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, and I could go on."
But "Instead of allowing the legislative process to proceed," Duncan said, "the President ignored the concerns of state and local law enforcement, ranchers, sportsmen and others and chose to designate the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks area a monument with the stroke of a pen. Due to the President's designation, the US Border Patrol, as well as, state and local law enforcement officers will be prevented from having full access to nearly 500,000 acres of land near the Mexican border. The Border Patrol must now comply with the requirements of several federal land management laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Wilderness Act and Endangered Species Act -- some of which will limit access to the monument except for on-foot or horseback."
Continuing, Duncan said, "Absent exigent circumstances such as an emergency or active pursuit of suspects, the Border Patrol will need to coordinate federal land management agencies when agents undertake operations, such as maintaining roads and installing surveillance equipment, on federal lands. According to Border Patrol, a 2006 memorandum of understanding between the Departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture,and the Interior provides the necessary guidance for its activities on federal lands. However, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report from 2010 showed that this approach resulted in delays and restrictions of Border Patrol's monitoring and patrolling operations. Given that we are facing a major crisis along our southwest border, any decision that creates yet additional vulnerability is unacceptable."
"Human and drug smugglers have used the area for smuggling in the past. The Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office has apprehended drug smugglers, confiscated stolen cars used for human and drug traffickers and rescued injured individuals left by their smugglers," Duncan said, adding that, "Due to the designation of the national monument, local law enforcement and the Border Patrol will be restricted to the few paved-surface roads, none of which traverse the entire 500,000 acres. The designation also prohibits the use of all terrain vehicles off of paved-surface roads. The lack of roads throughout and access to all federal lands of the monument creates a potential vulnerability for criminals and others to go unchecked. As a result, this newly designated national monument is practically an invitation to drug-runners and human smugglers, as if they even needed one. And I have not even mentioned the possibility that those who would seek to harm us including vicious drug cartels, transnational gangs and terrorist groups like Hezbollah or others could try to breach our sovereignty in order to carry out possibly heinous acts."
Duncan said, "It's critical for Border Patrol and state and local law enforcement to work together to determine how they will reduce the likelihood that this area becomes a sanctuary for these groups. In addition, despite the good intentions of trying to protect important environmental areas, this designation may have the opposite effect of harming this land. I doubt seriously that smugglers will protect it from pollution and those patrolling will have less access to help prevent such abuse.
Brandon Judd, a 17-year Border Patrol agent and president of the National Border Patrol Council, explained that "Two things need to be in place for border security. The first is sufficient manpower in the way of trained Border Patrol Agents in a given area of operation. The second is the ability to deploy a full suite of border security technology. This includes seismic sensors, cameras, communication equipment, fencing and even aircraft. Currently, about 40 percent of the 1,900 mile southwest border is owned by the federal government. Border patrol Agents need access to the land to track and find illegal aliens and narcotics smugglers. However, our ability to access federal lands has been varied and the level of cooperation we receive from the Departments of Interior and Agriculture has been dependent of the attitude and resources of individual land managers."
Judd said, "As a law enforcement officer, I am fully cognizant that we are a nation of laws. The 16,500 Border Patrol agents know that there are numerous environmental regulations governing access to federal land. However, a balance must be struck between border security and the requirements for environmental protection required under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Wilderness Act and the Endangered Species Act. Several negotiations ultimately led to a 2006 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Interior and DHS that resulted in improved access and better inter-agency cooperation in more recent years."
"However," Judd told the subcommittee, "the Government Accountability Office found in 2011 that about half of the Border Patrol stations that are assigned to patrol federal lands experienced delays, some lasting more than 6 months, in accessing USDA and Interior land. This kind of delay is unacceptable and its impact on Border Patrol operations are real."
Offering his perspective on how to fix this problem, Judd said, The first is that it has been suggested that Border Patrol be allowed to use its own funds to conduct any environmental assessments needed, as required under various environmental regulations. In theory, I support this, but understand that under sequestration we have five percent less manpower on the border than we did last year. In addition, we do not have enough money for gasoline and we have resorted to agents riding three to a vehicle instead of patrolling individually as we have always done to maximize coverage. This is the budgetary reality we are in today. I would not support funding being diverted from manpower to conduct environmental assessments."
The second option, Judd epressed, "is that USDA and Interior land managers need to better balance the impact the Border Patrol's presence has on federal land against the potential impact from illegal immigration and narcotics smuggling. We are often told that no access to federal land is possible due to environmental concerns. However, Border Patrol Agents go onto federal land with the single purpose of tracking illegal aliens. We try to accomplish this mission as quickly and as efficiently as we can, with as little disturbance to the environment as possible. I have personally seen from my time in Arizona how pristine landscapes can be quickly destroyed after illegal encampment, covered in trash and waste."
"What will be the impact of this National Monument designation on border security?" Judd asked. "The honest answer is that I do not know. That will largely depend on the attitude of the monument's land manger, whether he or she has the proper resources to respond to Border Patrol's requests, and whether this committee will hold the Department of Interior (DOI) accountable.
Doña Ana County Sheriff Todd Garrison told the subcommittee that, based on his nearly 15 years of experience policing the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks area, "Unfortunately -- and in my opinion -- the safety and welfare of the people in our part of the country is at risk" because of the President's designation of the mountainous region as a national monument.
Garrison said he believes "this designation is a very real threat, not only to what we are doing, but to our national security and the safety of the public."
"In 2007, in response to an increase in cross-border criminal activity, the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office created a task force dedicated to regular patrols of nearly 51 miles in Doña Ana County that skirt the US/Mexico border," he told lawmakers, noting that "It is a rugged, remote area that is extremely difficult to patrol. The conditions in that part of the desert are harsh on both personnel and equipment. One of our most valuable assets at our disposal is Operation Strongwatch, a mobile 'eye in the sky' surveillance unit with night vision, GPS-position tracking and a six-mile camera range that has the capability to take both still photos and video recordings."
Garrison said, "This task force has apprehended and documented several examples of what I've referred to as criminal border activity. We have intercepted mules, or individuals who use themselves as cargo carriers to transport illegal drugs from Mexico to the United States. Our interdiction teams have made significant busts, arresting suspects who utilize the remote areas of our county because they think they are the roads less traveled. They use whatever they can to get the job done -- if not on their own person, disguised in bags or in hidden compartments of their vehicles. Aside from bringing drugs across the border, these transnational networks are also moving human cargo. Sometimes we discover the bodies of those who fell victim to the relentless elements of the desert. Sometimes we just find evidence that they've been there, dumping their supplies along the way and trading out traceable footwear for crude carpet shoes that allow them to go undetected through the desert."
"All of this activity happens in the very area that is now federally-protected at a cost to national security -- known as the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument," Garrison said.
Garrison went on to point out that the Obama administration "placed this project on priority status in 2009," and that, "Twice, New Mexico Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich brought the proposition to the people of Doña Ana County and the people rejected the idea. Twice legislation was introduced in Congress and twice it was voted down. Congressman Steve Pearce introduced legislation to protect the Organ Mountains -- which I completely supported -- but the two senators went around the Organ Mountains Bill and straight to the President to over-rule the will of the people by deception to create the monument."
"This vast area along the US/Mexico border in Arizona is now a haven for criminals," Garrison said. "So much [so] that signs greet park visitors warning them of the dangers that lurk in these federally-protected lands. Although the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona is open to the public, sightseeing and travel are heavily discouraged due to active drug smuggling, human trafficking and armed criminals within the federally-protected lands. This area sees much of the same cross-border activity that Doña Ana County does, but now on a much bigger scale because of the federal protections US government has given it. It's now caught the attention of the one faction of international commerce that needs minimally-patrolled areas to conduct their business -- the Mexican cartels."
"The average person doesn't understand the very real -- and very dangerous -- implications of a national monument designation on the border," Sheriff Garrison said. "By protecting this land by way of a national monument, we have essentially exposed the people of Doña Ana County and the rest of the nation to the pitfalls of criminal activity along the border, and this designation flies in the face of what the US government is already doing to secure the border -- adding more Border Patrol agents along the US/Mexico border, and pumping millions of dollars in federal grant money to local law enforcement agencies like the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office to put more patrols in the area to mitigate criminal activity."
For years, the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Southern Arizona has been a human and drug smuggling corridor, officials admit. In 2002, Park Ranger Kris Eggle was killed by drug smugglers. In the Chiricahua National Monument north of Douglas, Arizona, last year a Park Service employee was bludgeoned with a rock by a drug smuggler and nearly died, then stole her vehicle. He was arrested the next day for drug smuggling.
Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument advocate Marc Rosenblum, deputy director of the US Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, told lawmakers that "there's broad, bipartisan congressional consensus in favor of creating an Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks national monument," and that "What is in dispute is how much land should be protected."
"A second set of questions concerns what type of access Customs and Border Protection and other federal, state and local agencies should have to protected areas for law enforcement purposes," Rosenblum said, conceding that, "Historically, some border enforcement operations on certain federal lands have been compromised because the DOI, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other federal land managers prioritize conservation and their own core missions over the Department of Homeland Security's law enforcement goals. In an effort to remedy this, DHS and DOI, along with the Department of Agriculture, signed a series of MOUs between 2006 and 2009 that established policies and procedures for inter-agency coordination on federal lands."
Rosenblum said, "Under the proclamation issued by President Obama, CBP access to the new Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument would be governed by these existing MOUs."
A Senate bill would supplement the MOUs by explicitly permitting CBP to conduct certain specified law enforcement activities within parts of the protected area, while a House version of the Senate bill would allow any federal, state or local law enforcement personnel to have unfettered access to the entire monument for all types of law enforcement activities.
"How large should the monument be, and what type of access should CBP and other law enforcement agencies have to the protected areas?" Rosenblum asked. "The answers to these questions depend on how preservation and public access to this area are valued, as well as how we assess the severity of border threats in this region."
Rosenblum said "southern New Mexico is not characterized by particularly acute border threats. The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks region falls in the middle of the Border Patrol's El Paso Sector, which is generally seen as a Border Patrol success story. Between the early 1980s and the early '90s, an average of more than 230,000 migrants per year were apprehended in the El Paso Sector. In 1994, Border Patrol Sector Chief Silvestre Reyes initiated Operation Blockade, moving a large number of agents and infrastructure up to the border line. Apprehensions fell by two-thirds that year, and entered a period of sustained declines over the next two decades after a brief increase in 1995-96. In the last five years, the Border Patrol has averaged fewer than 12,000 apprehensions per year in the entire El Paso Sector, about 5 percent of the level observed during the 1980s and early '90s."
While all apprehensions of all illegals in the El Paso Sector have dropped significantly since before FY 2011, they jumped from 10,345 in FY 2011 to more than 11,000 in FY 2013, according to the latest figures CBP provided to Homeland Security Today. In the El Paso Sector, apprehensions of "Other Than Mexicans" also rose since FY 2011, and in FY 2013 rose significantly, though still lower than in most other Border Patrol sectors.
From FY 2011 through FY 2013, there also was an increase in prosecutions and the amount of marijuana and cocaine seized in the El Paso Sector.
A 2011 GAO audit report of CBP access to federal lands concluded that, in general, DHS, DOI and USDA have used the national-level MOUs and established interagency liaison mechanisms to successfully negotiate DHS access to federal lands and the installation of border infrastructure in several different locations.
A majority of Border Patrol station chiefs (17 out of 26) said they experienced some type of delay or restriction in obtaining access to certain federal lands in their jurisdictions, but Rosenblum noted that "an even larger majority (22 out of 26) reported that such delays had not affected border security in their areas of operation.
GAO found, in some cases, that when the Border Patrol faces delays in adding infrastructure, such as fencing and other tactical infrastructure, it's able to mitigate wait times by assigning Border Patrol resources to work directly with partner agencies to expedite environmental reviews.
GAO said Border Patrol "did not always dedicate the resources to do so because many of the stations experiencing delays were in remote border regions where CBP did not perceive pressing border security threats."
"Overall, scarce Border Patrol resources were seen as more fundamental constraints on DHS's ability to secure the border than were requirements imposed by federal environmental and other laws," GAO's audit found. "Border Patrol station chiefs interviewed by GAO reported that the most important factors influencing their ability to secure federal lands near the border were the number of Border Patrol agents and the availability of adequate surveillance technology and tactical infrastructure. GAO concluded that these investments in border security per se were more important for controlling the border than were limitations on DHS's access to federal lands."
This assessment has been echoed by top Border Patrol officials in congressional testimony. They've told Congress the existing MOU allows Border Patrol to adequately carry out its border security missions.
Similarly, CBP said the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks monument designation "in no way [is] limiting" its ability to perform its mission and gives the agency "important flexibility" to do so.
end
Note: Another look at border issues from Homeland Security Today. Think about subscribing.
Yet another disaster inflicted on the West by washington dc. Those living and working on the ground absolutely disagree with "management".
"This vast area along the US/Mexico border in Arizona is now a haven for criminals,"
Border Security Concerns Linger Over New Mexico National Monument Designation
By: Anthony Kimery, Editor-in-Chief
08/05/2014 ( 8:03am)
http://www.hstoday.us/single-article/border-security-concerns-linger-over-new-mexico-national-monument-designation/637623add7fb82e9800b387a33271de2.html
On May 21, President Obama designated a new national monument area in southern New Mexico, the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, which comprises 500,000 acres near the US-Mexico border, half of which will be set aside as "wilderness."
The designation ignited heated debate among supporters of the designation and opponents who say environmental and other regulations that come with the designation will prevent Border Patrol from conducting border enforcement operations within the Organ Mountains area.
The 180 miles of New Mexico's southern border are designated as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas by the Department of Justice.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and fellow Republicans quickly decried the designation, saying it will impair Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) abilities to enforce drug-trafficking and human smuggling in the area, although Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, DC said "This designation will in no way limit our ability to perform our important border security mission, and in fact provides important flexibility as we work to meet this ongoing priority."
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and New Mexico law enforcement authorities said Border Patrol activities are allowed and unaffected by a monument designation.
However, Border Patrol agents, CBP officers and Southwest border law enforcement officials in recent years have complained that border enforcement activities continue to be impeded and delayed on federal lands because of a variety of regulations and environmental restrictions on use of the lands.
At a hearing last month on Obama's executive proclamation designating the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks a National Monument and its implications for border security convened by House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency Chairman Jeff Duncan (R-SC), 17-year Border Patrol agent Brandon Judd, who also is President of the National Border Patrol Council, and 14-year Doña Ana County, New Mexico Sheriff Todd Garrison, who also is chairman of the Southwest Border Sheriffs' Association, told the subcommittee earfuls of concerns about the border security threats they fear will emanate from this latest wilderness designation.
The President's designation of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks a National Monument "ignored legislation introduced in both chambers of Congress, which had buy-in and support from a broad coalition of state and local stakeholders and constituencies. Specifically, Rep. Steve Pearce introduced HR 995 which would have established an area in the Organ Mountains as a national monument, while granting law enforcement and other emergency personnel 'unfettered access' to the monument," Duncan said, noting that Pearce's "bill had letters of support from the Governor of New Mexico, the Las Cruces Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Western Heritage Alliance, Dona Ana Soil and Water Conservation District, Mesilla Valley Sportsmen's Alliance, the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, and I could go on."
But "Instead of allowing the legislative process to proceed," Duncan said, "the President ignored the concerns of state and local law enforcement, ranchers, sportsmen and others and chose to designate the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks area a monument with the stroke of a pen. Due to the President's designation, the US Border Patrol, as well as, state and local law enforcement officers will be prevented from having full access to nearly 500,000 acres of land near the Mexican border. The Border Patrol must now comply with the requirements of several federal land management laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Wilderness Act and Endangered Species Act -- some of which will limit access to the monument except for on-foot or horseback."
Continuing, Duncan said, "Absent exigent circumstances such as an emergency or active pursuit of suspects, the Border Patrol will need to coordinate federal land management agencies when agents undertake operations, such as maintaining roads and installing surveillance equipment, on federal lands. According to Border Patrol, a 2006 memorandum of understanding between the Departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture,and the Interior provides the necessary guidance for its activities on federal lands. However, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report from 2010 showed that this approach resulted in delays and restrictions of Border Patrol's monitoring and patrolling operations. Given that we are facing a major crisis along our southwest border, any decision that creates yet additional vulnerability is unacceptable."
"Human and drug smugglers have used the area for smuggling in the past. The Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office has apprehended drug smugglers, confiscated stolen cars used for human and drug traffickers and rescued injured individuals left by their smugglers," Duncan said, adding that, "Due to the designation of the national monument, local law enforcement and the Border Patrol will be restricted to the few paved-surface roads, none of which traverse the entire 500,000 acres. The designation also prohibits the use of all terrain vehicles off of paved-surface roads. The lack of roads throughout and access to all federal lands of the monument creates a potential vulnerability for criminals and others to go unchecked. As a result, this newly designated national monument is practically an invitation to drug-runners and human smugglers, as if they even needed one. And I have not even mentioned the possibility that those who would seek to harm us including vicious drug cartels, transnational gangs and terrorist groups like Hezbollah or others could try to breach our sovereignty in order to carry out possibly heinous acts."
Duncan said, "It's critical for Border Patrol and state and local law enforcement to work together to determine how they will reduce the likelihood that this area becomes a sanctuary for these groups. In addition, despite the good intentions of trying to protect important environmental areas, this designation may have the opposite effect of harming this land. I doubt seriously that smugglers will protect it from pollution and those patrolling will have less access to help prevent such abuse.
Brandon Judd, a 17-year Border Patrol agent and president of the National Border Patrol Council, explained that "Two things need to be in place for border security. The first is sufficient manpower in the way of trained Border Patrol Agents in a given area of operation. The second is the ability to deploy a full suite of border security technology. This includes seismic sensors, cameras, communication equipment, fencing and even aircraft. Currently, about 40 percent of the 1,900 mile southwest border is owned by the federal government. Border patrol Agents need access to the land to track and find illegal aliens and narcotics smugglers. However, our ability to access federal lands has been varied and the level of cooperation we receive from the Departments of Interior and Agriculture has been dependent of the attitude and resources of individual land managers."
Judd said, "As a law enforcement officer, I am fully cognizant that we are a nation of laws. The 16,500 Border Patrol agents know that there are numerous environmental regulations governing access to federal land. However, a balance must be struck between border security and the requirements for environmental protection required under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Wilderness Act and the Endangered Species Act. Several negotiations ultimately led to a 2006 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Interior and DHS that resulted in improved access and better inter-agency cooperation in more recent years."
"However," Judd told the subcommittee, "the Government Accountability Office found in 2011 that about half of the Border Patrol stations that are assigned to patrol federal lands experienced delays, some lasting more than 6 months, in accessing USDA and Interior land. This kind of delay is unacceptable and its impact on Border Patrol operations are real."
Offering his perspective on how to fix this problem, Judd said, The first is that it has been suggested that Border Patrol be allowed to use its own funds to conduct any environmental assessments needed, as required under various environmental regulations. In theory, I support this, but understand that under sequestration we have five percent less manpower on the border than we did last year. In addition, we do not have enough money for gasoline and we have resorted to agents riding three to a vehicle instead of patrolling individually as we have always done to maximize coverage. This is the budgetary reality we are in today. I would not support funding being diverted from manpower to conduct environmental assessments."
The second option, Judd epressed, "is that USDA and Interior land managers need to better balance the impact the Border Patrol's presence has on federal land against the potential impact from illegal immigration and narcotics smuggling. We are often told that no access to federal land is possible due to environmental concerns. However, Border Patrol Agents go onto federal land with the single purpose of tracking illegal aliens. We try to accomplish this mission as quickly and as efficiently as we can, with as little disturbance to the environment as possible. I have personally seen from my time in Arizona how pristine landscapes can be quickly destroyed after illegal encampment, covered in trash and waste."
"What will be the impact of this National Monument designation on border security?" Judd asked. "The honest answer is that I do not know. That will largely depend on the attitude of the monument's land manger, whether he or she has the proper resources to respond to Border Patrol's requests, and whether this committee will hold the Department of Interior (DOI) accountable.
Doña Ana County Sheriff Todd Garrison told the subcommittee that, based on his nearly 15 years of experience policing the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks area, "Unfortunately -- and in my opinion -- the safety and welfare of the people in our part of the country is at risk" because of the President's designation of the mountainous region as a national monument.
Garrison said he believes "this designation is a very real threat, not only to what we are doing, but to our national security and the safety of the public."
"In 2007, in response to an increase in cross-border criminal activity, the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office created a task force dedicated to regular patrols of nearly 51 miles in Doña Ana County that skirt the US/Mexico border," he told lawmakers, noting that "It is a rugged, remote area that is extremely difficult to patrol. The conditions in that part of the desert are harsh on both personnel and equipment. One of our most valuable assets at our disposal is Operation Strongwatch, a mobile 'eye in the sky' surveillance unit with night vision, GPS-position tracking and a six-mile camera range that has the capability to take both still photos and video recordings."
Garrison said, "This task force has apprehended and documented several examples of what I've referred to as criminal border activity. We have intercepted mules, or individuals who use themselves as cargo carriers to transport illegal drugs from Mexico to the United States. Our interdiction teams have made significant busts, arresting suspects who utilize the remote areas of our county because they think they are the roads less traveled. They use whatever they can to get the job done -- if not on their own person, disguised in bags or in hidden compartments of their vehicles. Aside from bringing drugs across the border, these transnational networks are also moving human cargo. Sometimes we discover the bodies of those who fell victim to the relentless elements of the desert. Sometimes we just find evidence that they've been there, dumping their supplies along the way and trading out traceable footwear for crude carpet shoes that allow them to go undetected through the desert."
"All of this activity happens in the very area that is now federally-protected at a cost to national security -- known as the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument," Garrison said.
Garrison went on to point out that the Obama administration "placed this project on priority status in 2009," and that, "Twice, New Mexico Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich brought the proposition to the people of Doña Ana County and the people rejected the idea. Twice legislation was introduced in Congress and twice it was voted down. Congressman Steve Pearce introduced legislation to protect the Organ Mountains -- which I completely supported -- but the two senators went around the Organ Mountains Bill and straight to the President to over-rule the will of the people by deception to create the monument."
"This vast area along the US/Mexico border in Arizona is now a haven for criminals," Garrison said. "So much [so] that signs greet park visitors warning them of the dangers that lurk in these federally-protected lands. Although the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona is open to the public, sightseeing and travel are heavily discouraged due to active drug smuggling, human trafficking and armed criminals within the federally-protected lands. This area sees much of the same cross-border activity that Doña Ana County does, but now on a much bigger scale because of the federal protections US government has given it. It's now caught the attention of the one faction of international commerce that needs minimally-patrolled areas to conduct their business -- the Mexican cartels."
"The average person doesn't understand the very real -- and very dangerous -- implications of a national monument designation on the border," Sheriff Garrison said. "By protecting this land by way of a national monument, we have essentially exposed the people of Doña Ana County and the rest of the nation to the pitfalls of criminal activity along the border, and this designation flies in the face of what the US government is already doing to secure the border -- adding more Border Patrol agents along the US/Mexico border, and pumping millions of dollars in federal grant money to local law enforcement agencies like the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office to put more patrols in the area to mitigate criminal activity."
For years, the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Southern Arizona has been a human and drug smuggling corridor, officials admit. In 2002, Park Ranger Kris Eggle was killed by drug smugglers. In the Chiricahua National Monument north of Douglas, Arizona, last year a Park Service employee was bludgeoned with a rock by a drug smuggler and nearly died, then stole her vehicle. He was arrested the next day for drug smuggling.
Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument advocate Marc Rosenblum, deputy director of the US Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, told lawmakers that "there's broad, bipartisan congressional consensus in favor of creating an Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks national monument," and that "What is in dispute is how much land should be protected."
"A second set of questions concerns what type of access Customs and Border Protection and other federal, state and local agencies should have to protected areas for law enforcement purposes," Rosenblum said, conceding that, "Historically, some border enforcement operations on certain federal lands have been compromised because the DOI, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other federal land managers prioritize conservation and their own core missions over the Department of Homeland Security's law enforcement goals. In an effort to remedy this, DHS and DOI, along with the Department of Agriculture, signed a series of MOUs between 2006 and 2009 that established policies and procedures for inter-agency coordination on federal lands."
Rosenblum said, "Under the proclamation issued by President Obama, CBP access to the new Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument would be governed by these existing MOUs."
A Senate bill would supplement the MOUs by explicitly permitting CBP to conduct certain specified law enforcement activities within parts of the protected area, while a House version of the Senate bill would allow any federal, state or local law enforcement personnel to have unfettered access to the entire monument for all types of law enforcement activities.
"How large should the monument be, and what type of access should CBP and other law enforcement agencies have to the protected areas?" Rosenblum asked. "The answers to these questions depend on how preservation and public access to this area are valued, as well as how we assess the severity of border threats in this region."
Rosenblum said "southern New Mexico is not characterized by particularly acute border threats. The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks region falls in the middle of the Border Patrol's El Paso Sector, which is generally seen as a Border Patrol success story. Between the early 1980s and the early '90s, an average of more than 230,000 migrants per year were apprehended in the El Paso Sector. In 1994, Border Patrol Sector Chief Silvestre Reyes initiated Operation Blockade, moving a large number of agents and infrastructure up to the border line. Apprehensions fell by two-thirds that year, and entered a period of sustained declines over the next two decades after a brief increase in 1995-96. In the last five years, the Border Patrol has averaged fewer than 12,000 apprehensions per year in the entire El Paso Sector, about 5 percent of the level observed during the 1980s and early '90s."
While all apprehensions of all illegals in the El Paso Sector have dropped significantly since before FY 2011, they jumped from 10,345 in FY 2011 to more than 11,000 in FY 2013, according to the latest figures CBP provided to Homeland Security Today. In the El Paso Sector, apprehensions of "Other Than Mexicans" also rose since FY 2011, and in FY 2013 rose significantly, though still lower than in most other Border Patrol sectors.
From FY 2011 through FY 2013, there also was an increase in prosecutions and the amount of marijuana and cocaine seized in the El Paso Sector.
A 2011 GAO audit report of CBP access to federal lands concluded that, in general, DHS, DOI and USDA have used the national-level MOUs and established interagency liaison mechanisms to successfully negotiate DHS access to federal lands and the installation of border infrastructure in several different locations.
A majority of Border Patrol station chiefs (17 out of 26) said they experienced some type of delay or restriction in obtaining access to certain federal lands in their jurisdictions, but Rosenblum noted that "an even larger majority (22 out of 26) reported that such delays had not affected border security in their areas of operation.
GAO found, in some cases, that when the Border Patrol faces delays in adding infrastructure, such as fencing and other tactical infrastructure, it's able to mitigate wait times by assigning Border Patrol resources to work directly with partner agencies to expedite environmental reviews.
GAO said Border Patrol "did not always dedicate the resources to do so because many of the stations experiencing delays were in remote border regions where CBP did not perceive pressing border security threats."
"Overall, scarce Border Patrol resources were seen as more fundamental constraints on DHS's ability to secure the border than were requirements imposed by federal environmental and other laws," GAO's audit found. "Border Patrol station chiefs interviewed by GAO reported that the most important factors influencing their ability to secure federal lands near the border were the number of Border Patrol agents and the availability of adequate surveillance technology and tactical infrastructure. GAO concluded that these investments in border security per se were more important for controlling the border than were limitations on DHS's access to federal lands."
This assessment has been echoed by top Border Patrol officials in congressional testimony. They've told Congress the existing MOU allows Border Patrol to adequately carry out its border security missions.
Similarly, CBP said the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks monument designation "in no way [is] limiting" its ability to perform its mission and gives the agency "important flexibility" to do so.
end
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
AZMEX UPDATE 4-8-14
AZMEX UPDATE 4 AUG 2014
Note: go to link for a look at the tats. Those who have spent some time in CA (Central America, not kalifornia) Familiar?
"men" or "children"?
Shirtless suspects brandish machete in Phoenix holdup
Posted: Aug 02, 2014 4:09 PM CDT
Updated: Aug 02, 2014 8:25 PM CDT
By Phil Benson - email
http://www.kpho.com/story/26181728/shirtless-suspects-brandish-machete-in-phoenix-holdup
Both shirtless suspects are described as Hispanic men between the ages of 16 to 18. (Source: Silent Witness)
PHOENIX -
Two armed robbers remain on the loose more than a month after they held up a clerk at a Phoenix-area service station.
Silent Witness hopes the public can provide new leads into the July 1 holdup at the Shell station at 5402 W. Indian School Rd.
Both shirtless suspects are described as Hispanic men between the ages of 16 to 18.
One of them is about 5'5" tall and weighs 120 pounds. He was wearing white shorts with a dark stripe on the side and had tattoos on upper right arm and chest. He was armed with a machete.
The other suspect is also 5'5" tall and weighs 120 pounds. He was wearing black shorts and shoes.
The suspects entered the store and "aggressively cornered the clerk," said Silent Witness Sgt. Derek Elmore.
They moved the clerk to the register and demanded money. The teen armed with the machete motioned as if he was going to strike the victim, Elmore said.
Both suspects obtained the money and fled on foot. They haven't been seen or heard from since.
Anyone with information about the suspects are asked to call Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS or 480-TESTIGO. People can also call Silent Witness detectives toll free at 1-800-343-TIPS. Your call will remain anonymous.
Another way to leave a message is to head to the website silentwitness.org.
fin
Note: more to come? Destroying evidence?
Sheriff's Office: 3 dead in Starr County shooting
Star County Sheriff's Office provided photograph
Investigators consider Eduardo Moreno, 24, a person of interest in the shooting.
Posted: Sunday, August 3, 2014 9:42 am
Jacob Fischler | The Monitor
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/sheriff-s-office-dead-in-starr-county-shooting/article_6f1c00fc-1b1c-11e4-890f-0017a43b2370.html
NEAR RIO GRANDE CITY — Starr County authorities discovered one live grenade, two dead men and a third man mortally injured after a shooting at a rural home Sunday morning.
Starr County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a call of shots fired at a home on Rosario Street near North Alvarez Road at about 6:15 a.m. Sunday. Inside the house, they found two Honduran nationals shot to death with an assault rifle, and a third man with "severe trauma to the abdomen," said Erasmo Rios Jr., a sheriff's office investigator.
The third man was rushed to Starr County Memorial Hospital, but later died, Rios said.
Rios said investigators want to talk to 24-year-old Eduardo Moreno, of Starr County, who they consider a person of interest in the case.
"He was known to frequent the area," Rios said, adding that Moreno is a U.S. citizen with a criminal history.
On a subsequent search of the home, investigators found a grenade. They called out the McAllen Police Department's bomb squad to dispose the explosive device.
Texas Rangers and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force are assisting the investigation, said Omar Escobar, the district attorney who oversees the county's HIDTA task force.
The shooting puzzled authorities, who could not immediately say if the case was drug-related.
"On this one, I'd hold off on making that assumption," Escobar said. "It's too early to say."
A motive wasn't readily apparent to investigators, Escobar added. "It's a strange little crime scene."
Authorities did not release the victims' names Sunday, as they were still working with the Honduran consulate to notify their families.
end
Note: go to link for a look at the tats. Those who have spent some time in CA (Central America, not kalifornia) Familiar?
"men" or "children"?
Shirtless suspects brandish machete in Phoenix holdup
Posted: Aug 02, 2014 4:09 PM CDT
Updated: Aug 02, 2014 8:25 PM CDT
By Phil Benson - email
http://www.kpho.com/story/26181728/shirtless-suspects-brandish-machete-in-phoenix-holdup
Both shirtless suspects are described as Hispanic men between the ages of 16 to 18. (Source: Silent Witness)
PHOENIX -
Two armed robbers remain on the loose more than a month after they held up a clerk at a Phoenix-area service station.
Silent Witness hopes the public can provide new leads into the July 1 holdup at the Shell station at 5402 W. Indian School Rd.
Both shirtless suspects are described as Hispanic men between the ages of 16 to 18.
One of them is about 5'5" tall and weighs 120 pounds. He was wearing white shorts with a dark stripe on the side and had tattoos on upper right arm and chest. He was armed with a machete.
The other suspect is also 5'5" tall and weighs 120 pounds. He was wearing black shorts and shoes.
The suspects entered the store and "aggressively cornered the clerk," said Silent Witness Sgt. Derek Elmore.
They moved the clerk to the register and demanded money. The teen armed with the machete motioned as if he was going to strike the victim, Elmore said.
Both suspects obtained the money and fled on foot. They haven't been seen or heard from since.
Anyone with information about the suspects are asked to call Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS or 480-TESTIGO. People can also call Silent Witness detectives toll free at 1-800-343-TIPS. Your call will remain anonymous.
Another way to leave a message is to head to the website silentwitness.org.
fin
Note: more to come? Destroying evidence?
Sheriff's Office: 3 dead in Starr County shooting
Star County Sheriff's Office provided photograph
Investigators consider Eduardo Moreno, 24, a person of interest in the shooting.
Posted: Sunday, August 3, 2014 9:42 am
Jacob Fischler | The Monitor
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/sheriff-s-office-dead-in-starr-county-shooting/article_6f1c00fc-1b1c-11e4-890f-0017a43b2370.html
NEAR RIO GRANDE CITY — Starr County authorities discovered one live grenade, two dead men and a third man mortally injured after a shooting at a rural home Sunday morning.
Starr County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a call of shots fired at a home on Rosario Street near North Alvarez Road at about 6:15 a.m. Sunday. Inside the house, they found two Honduran nationals shot to death with an assault rifle, and a third man with "severe trauma to the abdomen," said Erasmo Rios Jr., a sheriff's office investigator.
The third man was rushed to Starr County Memorial Hospital, but later died, Rios said.
Rios said investigators want to talk to 24-year-old Eduardo Moreno, of Starr County, who they consider a person of interest in the case.
"He was known to frequent the area," Rios said, adding that Moreno is a U.S. citizen with a criminal history.
On a subsequent search of the home, investigators found a grenade. They called out the McAllen Police Department's bomb squad to dispose the explosive device.
Texas Rangers and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force are assisting the investigation, said Omar Escobar, the district attorney who oversees the county's HIDTA task force.
The shooting puzzled authorities, who could not immediately say if the case was drug-related.
"On this one, I'd hold off on making that assumption," Escobar said. "It's too early to say."
A motive wasn't readily apparent to investigators, Escobar added. "It's a strange little crime scene."
Authorities did not release the victims' names Sunday, as they were still working with the Honduran consulate to notify their families.
end
AZMEX SPECIAL 5-8-14
AZMEX SPECIAL 5 AUG 2014
Note: As usual, "pro immigration" in this story, and most others by media, actually means pro illegal immigration.
El Paso police stop anti-illegal immigration convoy after alleged gun threat
By Luis Carlos Lopez / El Paso Times
POSTED: 08/04/2014 09:20:17 AM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_26267428/el-paso-police-stop-anti-illegal-immigration-convoy
The Border Convoy, a group from California who is traveling the border to protest illegal immigration, was stopped by El Paso Police at I-10 East and Lomaland Sunday after activists who were following the convoy said they had rifles pointed at them. (MARK LAMBIE - EL PASO TIMES )
REPORTER
Luis Carlos Lopez
A convoy of anti-illegal immigration demonstrators was pulled over by El Paso police after receiving a call alleging that one of its members had threatened a pro-immigration activist who was following the convoy through the city on Sunday, officials said.
Police stopped the convoy of about 10 vehicles on Interstate 10 East between Lomaland Drive and Lee Trevino Drive early Sunday evening, backing up traffic to McRae Boulevard.
Police spokesman Det. Mike Baranyay said police received a call alleging a gun threat at about 5 p.m. Sunday, but that there were some inconsistencies in the allegation.
No one was arrested and police let the convoy continue on its tour of the border.
Baranyay said members of the convoy alleged that a pro-immigration activist tried to run them off the road.
Both allegations are still under investigation, Baranyay said.
Pro-immigration activist Miguel Juarez said he had spotted the convoy traveling through El Paso and followed it. He said he wanted to see if an anti-illegal immigration rally that was said to have been cancelled would still be held.
Juarez said the convoy was travelling near Western Refining on Trowbridge Drive about two miles south of I-10 when one of the cars pulled over. He alleges someone from the Border Convoy got out of the car, pointed a rifle at him and asked if he was following the convoy.
Members of the Border Convoy denied the allegation, saying they were the ones who felt threatened.
Convoy organizer Eric Odom told the El Paso Times that a pro-immigration activist driving a pickup truck had followed them through the city trying to force them to pull over.
The Border Convoy has been streaming video of its nine-day tour from Murrieta, Calif., to McAllen, Texas, on its website. The convoy began its tour Friday, and it is scheduled to end Aug. 9.
"We have the entire thing on video ... That never happened," Odom told the El Paso Times about the alleged gun threat.
When asked if anyone in the convoy was carrying weapons, Odom said that they had a legal right to carry weapons for protection. "But as you can see, there's soccer moms with American flags (in the convoy). That's why they are going to let us go," Odom said.
Identifying itself on its website as a coalition of citizens concerned over the "invasion" at the border, the convoy had cancelled two El Paso stops because of alleged threats it received on Facebook, Odom said.
Earlier Sunday, the Border Network for Human Rights staged rallies on three I-10 overpasses near Downtown El Paso hoping to catch the convoy as it passed through the city.
"El Paso is the safest city in the nation," said Fernando Garcia, executive director of Border Network for Human Rights. "It's a welcoming city ... No racism, no xenophobia. That message is not welcomed."
Unaware of where the Border Convoy might hold its rally, community activists were eager to intercept the convoy with their own message.
"They have the right to express themselves. I think Border Network is very respectful of that," Garcia said. "But what we are saying is that they are bringing a message of discrimination, a message that is anti-children, anti-immigrant and at the end of the day, racists. So I think we are going to express ourselves saying they are not welcomed in El Paso."
Pro-immigration organizers held banners and American flags. Children, parents and others carried signs that read: "Anti-Children-Anti-American" and "Border Communities are American Communities."
Their message is in support of the more than 57,000 unaccompanied minors who have crossed the border illegally since October. Many are believed to be fleeing Central American countries that are plagued with violence and poverty.
"This country was founded by immigrants and we want these children to have a legal process," said activist Gabriel Flores in Spanish. "They (Border Convoy) want to deport these children so they can go back and die," Flores said, referring to the violence happening in Central America.
Susana Herrera, who has lived in El Paso for 15 years, said she believed the convoy's message goes against the country's values. "We are not in favor of deporting children," Herrera said in Spanish. "This country does not represent that. It represents security and freedom."
On its tour, the Border Convoy is urging people to "Secure the Border," "Stop the Invasion," and "Stand for America."
Odom said having to cancel their scheduled stop in El Paso proves their fears.
"It tells us the situation at our southern borders is as bad as we suspected," Odom said via text message. "The fact that our lives are in danger for simply wanting to protest confirms we truly are in trouble as a nation."
Luis Carlos Lopez may be reached at 546-6381.
Note: As usual, "pro immigration" in this story, and most others by media, actually means pro illegal immigration.
El Paso police stop anti-illegal immigration convoy after alleged gun threat
By Luis Carlos Lopez / El Paso Times
POSTED: 08/04/2014 09:20:17 AM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_26267428/el-paso-police-stop-anti-illegal-immigration-convoy
The Border Convoy, a group from California who is traveling the border to protest illegal immigration, was stopped by El Paso Police at I-10 East and Lomaland Sunday after activists who were following the convoy said they had rifles pointed at them. (MARK LAMBIE - EL PASO TIMES )
REPORTER
Luis Carlos Lopez
A convoy of anti-illegal immigration demonstrators was pulled over by El Paso police after receiving a call alleging that one of its members had threatened a pro-immigration activist who was following the convoy through the city on Sunday, officials said.
Police stopped the convoy of about 10 vehicles on Interstate 10 East between Lomaland Drive and Lee Trevino Drive early Sunday evening, backing up traffic to McRae Boulevard.
Police spokesman Det. Mike Baranyay said police received a call alleging a gun threat at about 5 p.m. Sunday, but that there were some inconsistencies in the allegation.
No one was arrested and police let the convoy continue on its tour of the border.
Baranyay said members of the convoy alleged that a pro-immigration activist tried to run them off the road.
Both allegations are still under investigation, Baranyay said.
Pro-immigration activist Miguel Juarez said he had spotted the convoy traveling through El Paso and followed it. He said he wanted to see if an anti-illegal immigration rally that was said to have been cancelled would still be held.
Juarez said the convoy was travelling near Western Refining on Trowbridge Drive about two miles south of I-10 when one of the cars pulled over. He alleges someone from the Border Convoy got out of the car, pointed a rifle at him and asked if he was following the convoy.
Members of the Border Convoy denied the allegation, saying they were the ones who felt threatened.
Convoy organizer Eric Odom told the El Paso Times that a pro-immigration activist driving a pickup truck had followed them through the city trying to force them to pull over.
The Border Convoy has been streaming video of its nine-day tour from Murrieta, Calif., to McAllen, Texas, on its website. The convoy began its tour Friday, and it is scheduled to end Aug. 9.
"We have the entire thing on video ... That never happened," Odom told the El Paso Times about the alleged gun threat.
When asked if anyone in the convoy was carrying weapons, Odom said that they had a legal right to carry weapons for protection. "But as you can see, there's soccer moms with American flags (in the convoy). That's why they are going to let us go," Odom said.
Identifying itself on its website as a coalition of citizens concerned over the "invasion" at the border, the convoy had cancelled two El Paso stops because of alleged threats it received on Facebook, Odom said.
Earlier Sunday, the Border Network for Human Rights staged rallies on three I-10 overpasses near Downtown El Paso hoping to catch the convoy as it passed through the city.
"El Paso is the safest city in the nation," said Fernando Garcia, executive director of Border Network for Human Rights. "It's a welcoming city ... No racism, no xenophobia. That message is not welcomed."
Unaware of where the Border Convoy might hold its rally, community activists were eager to intercept the convoy with their own message.
"They have the right to express themselves. I think Border Network is very respectful of that," Garcia said. "But what we are saying is that they are bringing a message of discrimination, a message that is anti-children, anti-immigrant and at the end of the day, racists. So I think we are going to express ourselves saying they are not welcomed in El Paso."
Pro-immigration organizers held banners and American flags. Children, parents and others carried signs that read: "Anti-Children-Anti-American" and "Border Communities are American Communities."
Their message is in support of the more than 57,000 unaccompanied minors who have crossed the border illegally since October. Many are believed to be fleeing Central American countries that are plagued with violence and poverty.
"This country was founded by immigrants and we want these children to have a legal process," said activist Gabriel Flores in Spanish. "They (Border Convoy) want to deport these children so they can go back and die," Flores said, referring to the violence happening in Central America.
Susana Herrera, who has lived in El Paso for 15 years, said she believed the convoy's message goes against the country's values. "We are not in favor of deporting children," Herrera said in Spanish. "This country does not represent that. It represents security and freedom."
On its tour, the Border Convoy is urging people to "Secure the Border," "Stop the Invasion," and "Stand for America."
Odom said having to cancel their scheduled stop in El Paso proves their fears.
"It tells us the situation at our southern borders is as bad as we suspected," Odom said via text message. "The fact that our lives are in danger for simply wanting to protest confirms we truly are in trouble as a nation."
Luis Carlos Lopez may be reached at 546-6381.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
AZMEX I3 1-8-14
AZMEX I3 1 AUG 2014
Note: Take a look at this one also;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2712187/EXCLUSIVE-A-lot-people-die-blood-Obamas-hands-Shocking-images-corpses-illegal-immigrants-left-die-border-crossings.html
Central American immigrants now have a new place to wait for their rides out of Tucson
Posted: Aug 01, 2014 5:35 PM CDT
Updated: Aug 01, 2014 6:04 PM CDT
By Barbara Grijalva - bio | email
http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/26176867/central-american-immigrants-now-have-a-new-place-to-wait-for-their-rides-out-of-tucson
TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) -
Central American Immigrants captured in Arizona still are passing through Tucson, but one part of their journey is changing.
Federal agents still process them, give them orders to appear at an immigration office in the future, then the immigrants are allowed to take a bus to family in the United States.
Starting Friday though, the immigrants were not waiting at the Greyhound Bus Station in Tucson for their rides.
Catholic Community Services, or CCS, is moving, what it calls, the hospitality center to a new, undisclosed location.
CCS Volunteer Coordinator Mike Gutierrez says Greyhound committed to a specific amount of time to provide space at the depot for the immigrants to wait for their buses, but that time has ended and it's time to move.
The new hospitality center is not at CCS offices, but at an undisclosed location.
Gutierrez says that's to give the immigrants, mostly women and children, some peace and quiet after all they've been through, and not because the agency is worried about protests.
"We haven't really seen that in this entire time. We haven't seen those kind of protests show up here. So that hasn't been really part of our concern. I imagine, it's possible, but the community as a whole hasn't really demonstrated that they want to protest this effort," Gutierrez says.
Gutierrez says after the immigrants go through federal processing, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, transfers them. "So ICE will pick them up and will transfer them over to--what was Greyhound--now it's the new location," Gutierrez says.
He says volunteers will give the immigrants the same service they got at the bus station.
"We'll give them some time to relax. We'll give them something to eat. We'll give them a chance to rummage through some clothes and get some clothes if they want to change clothes, diapers, give them a travel bag," Gutierrez says.
Then volunteers take them to the Greyhound station for the next leg of their journey.
Gutierrez says the number of immigrants Catholic Community Services serves has stabilized, averaging about 15 people a day.
Upstairs at CCS, staff and volunteers sort through the diapers, water bottles, snacks and other items our community has donated to help the immigrants who make a stop in Tucson. Gutierrez says the community has been generous. He says donations have even come from California. He says CCS will continue collecting donations for the immigrants at 140 West Speedway.
end
Note: abandoned by their parents, usually in the U.S. illegally.
Unaccompanied Mexican kids find open arms at Sonora shelter
Unaccompanied minors deported from the United States watch TV at the Camino a Casa shelter in Nogales, Sonora.
Posted: Friday, August 1, 2014 8:20 am
By Murphy Woodhouse
Nogales International
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/unaccompanied-mexican-kids-find-open-arms-at-sonora-shelter/article_67e15582-198f-11e4-99cb-001a4bcf887a.html
Phone calls from southern Mexico are the only things that have kept Yohana, 14, connected to her mother and all four siblings in Miami, Florida.
For the last eight years, the teenager has been living with her grandmother in Guerrero, one of Mexico's poorest states, while her mother worked in the United States and sent money back home. But two months ago, Yohana set out north with a smuggler her mother hired and a dream shared by many of the unaccompanied minors now straining federal enforcement agencies on the United States' southern border: family reunification.
"I don't know [my mother] in person," she said. "I've got all of my family up there."
After five failed crossing attempts in Reynosa, Tamaulipas and one failed attempt near Nogales, Yohana has not made it to her mother and has instead ended up at a shelter for young, unaccompanied deportees in Nogales, Sonora run by the agency Integral Family Development, or DIF.
The Nogales Placement Center, an ad-hoc facility at the local Border Patrol Station that was used in June and July to process around 5,000 unaccompanied Central American minors caught crossing the border in South Texas, is now empty and mostly out of the headlines. But the Border Patrol is still detaining, processing and deporting undocumented Mexican minors in the Nogales area. And the Nogales, Sonora shelter, Camino a Casa, or Path Home, is providing food, shelter and a number of other services to hundreds of the young deportees annually, as well as a handful of unaccompanied Central American minors.
According to data from Mexico's Foreign Relations Secretariat, 16,016 unaccompanied minors were deported to Mexico in 2013, 4,285 of whom ended up in Nogales, Sonora. Through the end of May this year, 7,847 such migrants have been returned to the country and, through the end of June, Camino a Casa has attended to 629 of them in Nogales, Sonora, according to Maria Isabel Arvizu Lopez, the shelter's coordinator. Since the facility opened in January 2005, nearly 47,000 children have passed through its doors.
Unlike unaccompanied Central American minors apprehended by the Border Patrol, Mexican minors are processed and returned to Mexico quickly, according to Nogales Station public information officers Raymond Bean and Richard Funke. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, of the 57,525 unaccompanied minors apprehended by the Border Patrol between Oct. 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014, 43,933 have been from Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras, and 12,614 have been from Mexico.
"Mexico is our neighbor," Funke said. "It simplifies things."
After the minors are processed by the Border Patrol and turned over to Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) for interviews to confirm age and nationality, state DIF offices take custody of unaccompanied Mexican minors, Arvizu said. Once in their custody, DIF's primary mission is simple, at least on its face: attend to the medical and emotional needs of children and get them back to their families and communities of origin in Mexico as quickly as possibly.
However, because so many parents are living illegally on the U.S. side of the border, things can get complicated. Arvizu said that when biological parents cannot come for the children or cannot be found, other close relatives, like grandparents, older siblings and aunts and uncles, can come for the young migrants if the parents have approved it.
In rare cases when parents and close relatives cannot be tracked down, the Sonoran DIF will transfer children to the custody of DIF officials in the state they're from.
Hard stories
There were 26 minors at the shelter on Tuesday morning, six of whom were Central American. Arvizu said that children normally stay just a handful of days and at most two-to-three weeks. The shelter has a capacity for 130 children, which is often reached during peak migration months like February and March.
While children wait at Camino a Casa for travel arrangements to be made, they receive three meals a day, access to personal hygiene products, psychological and legal services, medical care and even basic education during the school year. With the exception of legal services, Central American youth at the shelter enjoy access to the same services before INM begins the process to return them to their country of origin.
"We treat them like Mexicans," Arvizu said. "They're just like any other kid. We treat them equally. The only difference is that we don't have any knowledge about how their case is going."
Arvizu, who became the shelter's coordinator five years ago, said she had little personal understanding of migration before starting her job and the stories she heard from children in her first months were unsettling. Arvizu, who is from Nogales, Sonora but whose family largely resides in the United States, said that the ease with which she has always crossed the border made it difficult to appreciate the undocumented immigrant experience.
"It's harder at the start," she said. "It's really tough. You collide with reality."
Some stories were harder to hear than others.
"The cases that impact me the most are those of children who get lost in the desert," she said. "Seven, eight, nine days, they come in with their feet totally shredded. Children, I believe, should never have to endure anything like that."
"You have to learn to get past that pain so that you can help them," she said.
Cruz Mariano Posada Fimbres, the shelter's psychologist, said that emotional support is among the most important services offered by the shelter.
"More than anything, many kids arrive here sad, crying because they weren't able to cross into the United States," he said. "They're sad because they wanted to go and be with their mother, because they had a sick family member in Mexico and they wanted to go and make money to help them, or they had a single mother with five kids and they wanted to get some money to help them too. So, they show up here beat down, sad, disappointed and frustrated."
According to Posada, the experiences of children who were trying to reunite with family members are the hardest for the kids and most moving to him.
"They are children whose parents left them as newborns, months old, who now are 14, 15 years old, and they don't know their parents, they've never seen them," he said. "Yeah, they've seen photos, but they've never lived with their parents, never felt their touch, their human qualities, their parental sensitivity. When they aren't able to cross, their frustration for me is very poignant, the way they suffer for not having been able to see their parents."
Headed south
Joksan, a 13-year-old boy from the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz who had recently been apprehended trying to cross into the U.S. near Nogales, knows that frustration well. His father left to find work in Atlanta seven years ago and his mother followed four years later and left her son in the care of his grandmother. Since then, just like Yohana, it's been phone calls and photos that have kept the family together.
"Every time they call me, I start crying," Joksan said.
To get their only child to Atlanta, Joksan's parents paid a coyote 7,000 pesos ($530). Now in DIF custody, Joksan's parents have given an aunt of his in the south-central state of Morelos permission to come for their son and take him back to Veracruz to live with his grandmother.
Joksan, however, is not happy with the plan. "I want to try to cross again, so I can be with my parents," he said.
end
Note: Following from Homeland Security Today, a industry publication and a good english language source.
Those very interested in these issues may want to consider a subscription.
DHS IG Confirms Infectious Diseases Among 'Many' Illegal Children Entering US
By: Anthony Kimery, Editor-in-Chief
08/01/2014 ( 9:30am)
http://www.hstoday.us/single-article/dhs-ig-confirms-infectious-diseases-among-many-illegal-children-entering-us/cf3456eae109ee4e29cc1da69e33d930.html
"Many Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and family units" overwhelming US Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of Texas "require treatment for communicable diseases, including respiratory illnesses, tuberculosis, chicken pox and scabies," stated a Thursday memorandum from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) John Roth to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson confirming rumors and allegations of transmissible diseases from the flood of illegal aliens who been entering the United States through the RGV border with Mexico.
The report was released as a new facility to house illegal immigrant families at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, New Mexico has been quarantined because of an outbreak of chicken pox in roughly 300 individuals. About 80 also reportedly tested positive for tuberculosis.
The IG's July 31 report is based on 87 unannounced site visits conducted by Office of Inspector General (OIG agents from July 1-16 at 63 detention centers in Texas, Arizona and California, largely operated by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The OIG's oversight of the detention centers is ongoing and reports will be issued monthly.
The IG found that "UAC and family unit illnesses and unfamiliarity with bathroom facilities resulted in unsanitary conditions and exposure to human waste in some holding facilities," and that, "DHS employees reported exposure to communicable diseases and becoming sick on duty."
"For example," the IG's memorandum stated, "during a recent site visit to the Del Rio US Border Patrol Station and Del Rio Port of Entry, CBP personnel reported contracting scabies, lice and chicken pox. Two CBP Officers reported that their children were diagnosed with chicken pox within days of the CBP Officers' contact with a UAC who had chicken pox. In addition, Border Patrol personnel at the Clint Station and Santa Teresa Station reported that they were potentially exposed to tuberculosis."
OIG agents reported "Some problems were identified, including children requiring treatment for communicable diseases and DHS employees who have become ill from contact with their charges."
The IG's report would seem to make it clear that many UACs have not been properly vaccinated and are carrying a potentially wide variety of infectious diseases, putting CBP officers, Border Patrol agents and communities at risk. Furthermore, as CBP, Border Patrol and public health officials have pointed out, serious infectious diseases may not have manifested yet.
According to the border region health care officials, hospitals have diagnosed persons with infectious diarrhea, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, scabies, chickenpox and sexually transmitted diseases. There also have been reports from Border Patrol of MRSA staph infections.
"I've talked to border patrol down in McAllen [Texas]. They've seen TB; they've seen chicken pox; they've seen scabies. And according to Border Patrol, 4 or 5 of their agents have tested positive for those diseases," Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, was quoted saying.
Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Kenneth Wolfe also confirmed that an unaccompanied child was hospitalized after being diagnosed with the H1N1 influenza virus, more commonly known as swine flu.
Only a few weeks ago, however, a news report stated the GOP was "making alarmist claims against migrant children, saying "GOP Rep. Phil Gingrey, a retired Georgia physician, is stoking fears that the flood of migrant children is bringing loads of diseases into US, even cases of the severe and oftentimes fatal Ebola virus."
The report stated "Gingrey's claims join a chorus of alarms from the right conjuring a major public health crisis at the border with alleged outbreaks of scabies, lice and chicken pox in the facilities holding the migrant kids."
The DHS IG's report released Thursday makes clear that these "outbreaks" are no longer "alleged."
"The border patrol gave us a list of the diseases that they're concerned about, and Ebola was one of those," Gingrey told NBC News.
MSNBC reported "Medical experts swiftly panned Gingrey's claims for raising hysteria, noting that Ebola is not only difficult to transmit, but also does not exist in Central America. According to the World Health Organization, Ebola has only been found in humans living in sub-Saharan Africa."
According to CBP data, citizens of West African nations in the Ebola hot zones have been caught trying to enter the US through the Rio Grande Valley.
This is a potentially serious concern, officials expressed to Homeland Security Today, saying illegal aliens from African nations caught trying to enter the United States could be carrying the highly lethal and infectious Ebola virus given the virus's widespread outbreak across West Africa.
This week, Doctors Without Borders said the Ebola epidemic across West Africa is "out of control."
"This is the biggest and most complex Ebola outbreak in history. Far too many lives have been lost already," CDC Director Tom Frieden said Thursday at a press briefing.
Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to ebola virus though 8-10 days is most common.
CDC said the risk of exposure has been confirmed in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Gabon, South Sudan, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Republic of the Congo (ROC) and South Africa (imported).
Photo: Adolescent female with varicella lesions in various stages. Source, CDC, Copyright American Academy of Pediatrics
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Note: Take a look at this one also;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2712187/EXCLUSIVE-A-lot-people-die-blood-Obamas-hands-Shocking-images-corpses-illegal-immigrants-left-die-border-crossings.html
Central American immigrants now have a new place to wait for their rides out of Tucson
Posted: Aug 01, 2014 5:35 PM CDT
Updated: Aug 01, 2014 6:04 PM CDT
By Barbara Grijalva - bio | email
http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/26176867/central-american-immigrants-now-have-a-new-place-to-wait-for-their-rides-out-of-tucson
TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) -
Central American Immigrants captured in Arizona still are passing through Tucson, but one part of their journey is changing.
Federal agents still process them, give them orders to appear at an immigration office in the future, then the immigrants are allowed to take a bus to family in the United States.
Starting Friday though, the immigrants were not waiting at the Greyhound Bus Station in Tucson for their rides.
Catholic Community Services, or CCS, is moving, what it calls, the hospitality center to a new, undisclosed location.
CCS Volunteer Coordinator Mike Gutierrez says Greyhound committed to a specific amount of time to provide space at the depot for the immigrants to wait for their buses, but that time has ended and it's time to move.
The new hospitality center is not at CCS offices, but at an undisclosed location.
Gutierrez says that's to give the immigrants, mostly women and children, some peace and quiet after all they've been through, and not because the agency is worried about protests.
"We haven't really seen that in this entire time. We haven't seen those kind of protests show up here. So that hasn't been really part of our concern. I imagine, it's possible, but the community as a whole hasn't really demonstrated that they want to protest this effort," Gutierrez says.
Gutierrez says after the immigrants go through federal processing, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, transfers them. "So ICE will pick them up and will transfer them over to--what was Greyhound--now it's the new location," Gutierrez says.
He says volunteers will give the immigrants the same service they got at the bus station.
"We'll give them some time to relax. We'll give them something to eat. We'll give them a chance to rummage through some clothes and get some clothes if they want to change clothes, diapers, give them a travel bag," Gutierrez says.
Then volunteers take them to the Greyhound station for the next leg of their journey.
Gutierrez says the number of immigrants Catholic Community Services serves has stabilized, averaging about 15 people a day.
Upstairs at CCS, staff and volunteers sort through the diapers, water bottles, snacks and other items our community has donated to help the immigrants who make a stop in Tucson. Gutierrez says the community has been generous. He says donations have even come from California. He says CCS will continue collecting donations for the immigrants at 140 West Speedway.
end
Note: abandoned by their parents, usually in the U.S. illegally.
Unaccompanied Mexican kids find open arms at Sonora shelter
Unaccompanied minors deported from the United States watch TV at the Camino a Casa shelter in Nogales, Sonora.
Posted: Friday, August 1, 2014 8:20 am
By Murphy Woodhouse
Nogales International
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/unaccompanied-mexican-kids-find-open-arms-at-sonora-shelter/article_67e15582-198f-11e4-99cb-001a4bcf887a.html
Phone calls from southern Mexico are the only things that have kept Yohana, 14, connected to her mother and all four siblings in Miami, Florida.
For the last eight years, the teenager has been living with her grandmother in Guerrero, one of Mexico's poorest states, while her mother worked in the United States and sent money back home. But two months ago, Yohana set out north with a smuggler her mother hired and a dream shared by many of the unaccompanied minors now straining federal enforcement agencies on the United States' southern border: family reunification.
"I don't know [my mother] in person," she said. "I've got all of my family up there."
After five failed crossing attempts in Reynosa, Tamaulipas and one failed attempt near Nogales, Yohana has not made it to her mother and has instead ended up at a shelter for young, unaccompanied deportees in Nogales, Sonora run by the agency Integral Family Development, or DIF.
The Nogales Placement Center, an ad-hoc facility at the local Border Patrol Station that was used in June and July to process around 5,000 unaccompanied Central American minors caught crossing the border in South Texas, is now empty and mostly out of the headlines. But the Border Patrol is still detaining, processing and deporting undocumented Mexican minors in the Nogales area. And the Nogales, Sonora shelter, Camino a Casa, or Path Home, is providing food, shelter and a number of other services to hundreds of the young deportees annually, as well as a handful of unaccompanied Central American minors.
According to data from Mexico's Foreign Relations Secretariat, 16,016 unaccompanied minors were deported to Mexico in 2013, 4,285 of whom ended up in Nogales, Sonora. Through the end of May this year, 7,847 such migrants have been returned to the country and, through the end of June, Camino a Casa has attended to 629 of them in Nogales, Sonora, according to Maria Isabel Arvizu Lopez, the shelter's coordinator. Since the facility opened in January 2005, nearly 47,000 children have passed through its doors.
Unlike unaccompanied Central American minors apprehended by the Border Patrol, Mexican minors are processed and returned to Mexico quickly, according to Nogales Station public information officers Raymond Bean and Richard Funke. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, of the 57,525 unaccompanied minors apprehended by the Border Patrol between Oct. 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014, 43,933 have been from Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras, and 12,614 have been from Mexico.
"Mexico is our neighbor," Funke said. "It simplifies things."
After the minors are processed by the Border Patrol and turned over to Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) for interviews to confirm age and nationality, state DIF offices take custody of unaccompanied Mexican minors, Arvizu said. Once in their custody, DIF's primary mission is simple, at least on its face: attend to the medical and emotional needs of children and get them back to their families and communities of origin in Mexico as quickly as possibly.
However, because so many parents are living illegally on the U.S. side of the border, things can get complicated. Arvizu said that when biological parents cannot come for the children or cannot be found, other close relatives, like grandparents, older siblings and aunts and uncles, can come for the young migrants if the parents have approved it.
In rare cases when parents and close relatives cannot be tracked down, the Sonoran DIF will transfer children to the custody of DIF officials in the state they're from.
Hard stories
There were 26 minors at the shelter on Tuesday morning, six of whom were Central American. Arvizu said that children normally stay just a handful of days and at most two-to-three weeks. The shelter has a capacity for 130 children, which is often reached during peak migration months like February and March.
While children wait at Camino a Casa for travel arrangements to be made, they receive three meals a day, access to personal hygiene products, psychological and legal services, medical care and even basic education during the school year. With the exception of legal services, Central American youth at the shelter enjoy access to the same services before INM begins the process to return them to their country of origin.
"We treat them like Mexicans," Arvizu said. "They're just like any other kid. We treat them equally. The only difference is that we don't have any knowledge about how their case is going."
Arvizu, who became the shelter's coordinator five years ago, said she had little personal understanding of migration before starting her job and the stories she heard from children in her first months were unsettling. Arvizu, who is from Nogales, Sonora but whose family largely resides in the United States, said that the ease with which she has always crossed the border made it difficult to appreciate the undocumented immigrant experience.
"It's harder at the start," she said. "It's really tough. You collide with reality."
Some stories were harder to hear than others.
"The cases that impact me the most are those of children who get lost in the desert," she said. "Seven, eight, nine days, they come in with their feet totally shredded. Children, I believe, should never have to endure anything like that."
"You have to learn to get past that pain so that you can help them," she said.
Cruz Mariano Posada Fimbres, the shelter's psychologist, said that emotional support is among the most important services offered by the shelter.
"More than anything, many kids arrive here sad, crying because they weren't able to cross into the United States," he said. "They're sad because they wanted to go and be with their mother, because they had a sick family member in Mexico and they wanted to go and make money to help them, or they had a single mother with five kids and they wanted to get some money to help them too. So, they show up here beat down, sad, disappointed and frustrated."
According to Posada, the experiences of children who were trying to reunite with family members are the hardest for the kids and most moving to him.
"They are children whose parents left them as newborns, months old, who now are 14, 15 years old, and they don't know their parents, they've never seen them," he said. "Yeah, they've seen photos, but they've never lived with their parents, never felt their touch, their human qualities, their parental sensitivity. When they aren't able to cross, their frustration for me is very poignant, the way they suffer for not having been able to see their parents."
Headed south
Joksan, a 13-year-old boy from the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz who had recently been apprehended trying to cross into the U.S. near Nogales, knows that frustration well. His father left to find work in Atlanta seven years ago and his mother followed four years later and left her son in the care of his grandmother. Since then, just like Yohana, it's been phone calls and photos that have kept the family together.
"Every time they call me, I start crying," Joksan said.
To get their only child to Atlanta, Joksan's parents paid a coyote 7,000 pesos ($530). Now in DIF custody, Joksan's parents have given an aunt of his in the south-central state of Morelos permission to come for their son and take him back to Veracruz to live with his grandmother.
Joksan, however, is not happy with the plan. "I want to try to cross again, so I can be with my parents," he said.
end
Note: Following from Homeland Security Today, a industry publication and a good english language source.
Those very interested in these issues may want to consider a subscription.
DHS IG Confirms Infectious Diseases Among 'Many' Illegal Children Entering US
By: Anthony Kimery, Editor-in-Chief
08/01/2014 ( 9:30am)
http://www.hstoday.us/single-article/dhs-ig-confirms-infectious-diseases-among-many-illegal-children-entering-us/cf3456eae109ee4e29cc1da69e33d930.html
"Many Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and family units" overwhelming US Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of Texas "require treatment for communicable diseases, including respiratory illnesses, tuberculosis, chicken pox and scabies," stated a Thursday memorandum from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) John Roth to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson confirming rumors and allegations of transmissible diseases from the flood of illegal aliens who been entering the United States through the RGV border with Mexico.
The report was released as a new facility to house illegal immigrant families at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, New Mexico has been quarantined because of an outbreak of chicken pox in roughly 300 individuals. About 80 also reportedly tested positive for tuberculosis.
The IG's July 31 report is based on 87 unannounced site visits conducted by Office of Inspector General (OIG agents from July 1-16 at 63 detention centers in Texas, Arizona and California, largely operated by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The OIG's oversight of the detention centers is ongoing and reports will be issued monthly.
The IG found that "UAC and family unit illnesses and unfamiliarity with bathroom facilities resulted in unsanitary conditions and exposure to human waste in some holding facilities," and that, "DHS employees reported exposure to communicable diseases and becoming sick on duty."
"For example," the IG's memorandum stated, "during a recent site visit to the Del Rio US Border Patrol Station and Del Rio Port of Entry, CBP personnel reported contracting scabies, lice and chicken pox. Two CBP Officers reported that their children were diagnosed with chicken pox within days of the CBP Officers' contact with a UAC who had chicken pox. In addition, Border Patrol personnel at the Clint Station and Santa Teresa Station reported that they were potentially exposed to tuberculosis."
OIG agents reported "Some problems were identified, including children requiring treatment for communicable diseases and DHS employees who have become ill from contact with their charges."
The IG's report would seem to make it clear that many UACs have not been properly vaccinated and are carrying a potentially wide variety of infectious diseases, putting CBP officers, Border Patrol agents and communities at risk. Furthermore, as CBP, Border Patrol and public health officials have pointed out, serious infectious diseases may not have manifested yet.
According to the border region health care officials, hospitals have diagnosed persons with infectious diarrhea, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, scabies, chickenpox and sexually transmitted diseases. There also have been reports from Border Patrol of MRSA staph infections.
"I've talked to border patrol down in McAllen [Texas]. They've seen TB; they've seen chicken pox; they've seen scabies. And according to Border Patrol, 4 or 5 of their agents have tested positive for those diseases," Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, was quoted saying.
Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Kenneth Wolfe also confirmed that an unaccompanied child was hospitalized after being diagnosed with the H1N1 influenza virus, more commonly known as swine flu.
Only a few weeks ago, however, a news report stated the GOP was "making alarmist claims against migrant children, saying "GOP Rep. Phil Gingrey, a retired Georgia physician, is stoking fears that the flood of migrant children is bringing loads of diseases into US, even cases of the severe and oftentimes fatal Ebola virus."
The report stated "Gingrey's claims join a chorus of alarms from the right conjuring a major public health crisis at the border with alleged outbreaks of scabies, lice and chicken pox in the facilities holding the migrant kids."
The DHS IG's report released Thursday makes clear that these "outbreaks" are no longer "alleged."
"The border patrol gave us a list of the diseases that they're concerned about, and Ebola was one of those," Gingrey told NBC News.
MSNBC reported "Medical experts swiftly panned Gingrey's claims for raising hysteria, noting that Ebola is not only difficult to transmit, but also does not exist in Central America. According to the World Health Organization, Ebola has only been found in humans living in sub-Saharan Africa."
According to CBP data, citizens of West African nations in the Ebola hot zones have been caught trying to enter the US through the Rio Grande Valley.
This is a potentially serious concern, officials expressed to Homeland Security Today, saying illegal aliens from African nations caught trying to enter the United States could be carrying the highly lethal and infectious Ebola virus given the virus's widespread outbreak across West Africa.
This week, Doctors Without Borders said the Ebola epidemic across West Africa is "out of control."
"This is the biggest and most complex Ebola outbreak in history. Far too many lives have been lost already," CDC Director Tom Frieden said Thursday at a press briefing.
Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to ebola virus though 8-10 days is most common.
CDC said the risk of exposure has been confirmed in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Gabon, South Sudan, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Republic of the Congo (ROC) and South Africa (imported).
Photo: Adolescent female with varicella lesions in various stages. Source, CDC, Copyright American Academy of Pediatrics
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