AZMEX POLICY 20 JAN 2019
Note: several photos, etc. at link.
Comment: The SCCSO seldom catches anyone. Pima & Santa Cruz counties run by democrats.
For decades, many people north of the border have engaged in drug and human trafficking.
( Disclaimer; comment not meant to implicate any of the people mentioned in this article )
Thx
In enclave near border, 'crisis' doesn't reflect residents' reality
Still, opinion mixed in Kino Springs Village on the need for a wall
By Nick Phillips
Nogales International Jan 18, 2019 Updated Jan 18, 2019
https://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/in-enclave-near-border-crisis-doesn-t-reflect-residents-reality/article_d06f1dee-1b30-11e9-bb1f-8ffe32321ddf.html
Kino Springs 12
A Border Patrol vehicle drives east along the border south of Kino Springs Village, where the tall bollard fencing gives way to shorter vehicle barriers.
Photo by Nick Phillips
The smell of smoke from wood-burning stoves and dogs barking behind fences welcome visitors to Kino Springs Village, a community of roughly 50 homes in an unincorporated area about eight miles due east of Nogales.
Low, rolling hills dotted with short trees and cacti extend in every direction from the cluster of residences. To the west, the Santa Cruz riverbed cuts through the arid landscape. To the east, the Patagonia Mountains rise in the distance. To the south, after two miles of open desert and cattle pastures, lies the U.S.-Mexico border.
Here, the tall bollard-style fence that runs along the border in and around Nogales gives way to a waist-high barrier that extends east toward the mountains and San Rafael Valley beyond them, preventing vehicles from crossing but presenting only a minor hurdle to animals or people traveling on foot.
Last week, the president used a prime-time TV address and a trip to McAllen,Texas to reiterate his assertion that the United States is in the midst of a security crisis at its southern border and to double down on his demand for $5.7 billion to build a wall or slatted barrier along the entire border. The stalemate between the president and congressional Democrats over the wall has left the federal government in partial shutdown since Dec. 22.
"This barrier is absolutely critical to border security," he told the nation during his address. Following his trip to McAllen, he tweeted: "I just got back and it is a far worse situation than almost anyone would understand, an invasion!"
But if there is a border crisis, a number of Kino Springs Village residents said this week, it doesn't prevent them from feeling safe in their community. They said that signs of illegal activity are rare in the quiet neighborhood where children leave bikes unattended on the sidewalk and homeowners sometimes leave their doors unlocked.
"There is not anything that makes us feel insecure going on," said Lupita Hernandez. "I'm 64 years old, I've been here all my life. The illegal crossing, that has been going on forever and the only bad thing is the people who do the drug dealing. But if you don't bother them, I don't think they'll bother you."
Kino Springs Road is the main street in this enclave of approximately 50 homes situated in an unincorporated area approximately two miles north of the border.
Photo by Nick Phillips
Hernandez, who moved to Kino Springs from Nogales 16 years ago, said that she thinks that the president is "full of (crap)" and called the border wall a "ridiculous" proposal.
But others, while feeling safe in their community, voiced concerns about the human and drug trafficking that they say occurs not far from their tree-lined residential streets.
"It (the Kino Springs neighborhood) doesn't really invite a lot of intruders, but 50 yards out there, it's just wild country," said Jan Smith Flores, a former appellate judge, Nogales city attorney and one-time chair of the Santa Cruz County Republican Party who lives in the neighborhood.
Several years ago, Flores said, she and her husband were nearly forced off the road when an oncoming vehicle driven by drug traffickers with a marijuana load started driving directly toward them.
Flores said that she supports a border wall, but only partially for the changes that she would expect it to bring to Kino Springs Village.
"Yes, I would feel more safe, but I would feel better that we were taking people, intercepting them before they can get anywhere," she said.
The tall bollard fence gives way to a shorter vehicle barrier along a short stretch of the border south of Kino Springs Village.
Photo by Nick Phillips
'They're all over'
Village resident Bert Wenke said that a couple of weeks ago, two men who she believed had crossed the border illegally broke into the RV that she and her husband keep behind their home.
"That's the first time I ever felt afraid and threatened, because I was here by myself," said Wenke, who works as the director of the Crossroads Mission in Nogales.
"I think if we put the wall up," Wenke said, "the bad people will stay out."
Cattle ranches occupy some of the sparsely populated land between Kino Springs Village and the border.
Photo by Nick Phillips
In the meantime, the heavy presence of local and federal law enforcement in the village already provides assurance to many residents, including Wenke.
"They're all over," she said.
"We see a lot of agents and Santa Cruz police in this area, so I feel pretty safe," said 77-year-old Ramona Lopez. "A lot of elderly people live out here and other than that situation we had last year, I've never heard of any anything like that happening around here."
The situation last year was the still-unsolved homicide of 67-year-old Truman Lee Nelson outside his home in the village, a crime that left many residents shocked and frightened. However, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Antonio Estrada said his office did not have any evidence to suggest that Nelson's killing was connected to cross-border activity.
In terms of the overall border security situation in the area, Estrada said that
"it's business as usual here. We're not seeing any crisis."
He added that the amount of drugs crossing the border has increased but the number of people has dropped off in recent years. The vast majority of drugs that enter the country come through ports of entry, not across remote sections of the border like the desert area south of Kino Springs, he said.
"As far as security," he said, "I don't believe that we have a problem."
A deputy from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office waits next to Kino Springs Drive.
Photo by Nick Phillips
Orville Knappe, 71, a former mechanic for the General Services Administration who lives in Kino Springs Village, said: "We're pretty safe." "We got all kinds of law enforcement. We got customs, we got Border Patrol," he said.
Even so, Knappe said he favors construction of a border wall.
"It won't cure the problem, but it'll help some, make it a little more difficult for some things to come by," he said.
Kino Springs Village map
Kino Springs Village sits approximately two miles due north of the U.S.-Mexico border at a point where the tall, steel bollard fence gives way to vehicle barriers.
END
More:
Note: Mug shots at link.
SPV residents nabbed as part of drug probe
By Chris Dabovich chris.dabovich@bensonnews-sun Jan 16, 2019 Updated Jan 16, 2019
https://www.bensonnews-sun.com/news/article_a9906e42-191b-11e9-a12e-8365de234a9f.html
San Pedro Valley residents were among those rounded up as part of a multi-agency probe that resulted
in seizure of drugs, cash, weapons and stolen vehicles
and which culminated with several felony arrests Wednesday.
Timothy Arthur Evicci, 47, Rebekah Leigh Fernandez, 42, both of St. David, and Shalmarie A. Tulk, 45, of Benson, are in custody. They were nabbed as part of a yearlong undercover investigation.
Authorities, armed with warrants, made the sweep and arrests in Cochise and Pima counties,
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said.
There were no injuries or incidents reported with regard to the morning simultaneous operation,
although Evicci made a run for it in an attempt to elude arrest but was quickly apprehended
in a wash with help of a police canine and aerial surveillance, said Dannels.
The trio face a multi-count felony complaint.
Evicci is charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice, sale/manufacturing controlled substance,
enterprising/control by racketeering and utilizing wire communication during drug transaction.
Fernandez is charged with conspiracy, obstructing justice and enterprising/control by racketeering and
Tulk is charged with conspiracy, illegally conducting an enterprise and three counts of possession of dangerous drug for sale.
Sheriff Dannels, along with Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier, with representatives from Arizona Department of Public Safety and Arizona Attorney General's Office in attendance as well, made the announcement at a Thursday morning news conference at the Southeast Arizona Communications Center or SEACOM in Sierra Vista.
The investigation was spurred last year following a drug arrest by members of the CCSO Street Crimes unit in Sierra Vista.
Dannels and Napier touted the work and intelligence gathered and shared through extensive cooperation between federal, state, county and local authorities.
Sixteen felony arrests were conducted as part of the investigation with more expected, the sheriff said.
Investigation, on behalf of CCSO, US Drug Enforcement Administration and DPS Task Force, is ongoing, said Dannels.
End
More: Excelsior reports death toll from pipeline theft and fire now at 85 and expected to rise.
https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/se-eleva-a-79-el-numero-de-victimas-por-explosion-en-tlahuelilpan/1291434.
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