Posted on 04/15/2010 5:02:45 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PHOENIX – Federal agents arrested nearly 50 shuttle operators and smugglers Thursday accused of using vans to transport thousands of illegal immigrants from the Mexican border to Phoenix in what was billed as one of the government's largest-ever human smuggling busts.
Investigators said the operators of four shuttle services in Tucson and a fifth in Phoenix created their businesses solely to help immigrant smugglers move their customers to Phoenix under a veil of legitimacy. The shuttle operators are accused of giving illegal immigrants fraudulent receipts to make the trips look legitimate and coaching them on what to say if the vans were pulled over by police.
"They are in knee-deep. They know exactly what's going on," said John Morton, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.
Arrests were made in Phoenix, Tucson and two other Arizona towns along the border, Nogales and Rio Rico. Investigators also made arrests in Tennessee, and Mexican authorities detained people in the border state of Sonora. In all, 47 people were in custody, including the leaders of three smuggling operations.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Proud to be an Arizonan!
.. “in knee-deep” .
Coming soon to a theater near you
Border Ping
Any particular reason this wasn’t done, oh say, twenty years ago? The horse is long out of the barn. You’ll stop it temporarily, or it’ll shift over a bit to New Mexico, or Texas, or back to California. In the meantime, what do you do with the tens of millions already here? Kind of like putting your finger in the pea size hole of a dam while the bloody crack is gushing like Niagara Falls for the past 2 decades. I guess I shouldn’t be so critical but this only a small part of the whole story. If private businesses didn’t look the other way and give these people jobs, if the government didn’t give them hand outs, and the schools and hospitals didn’t provide them service unless they could prove they were legitimate citizens, they wouldn’t be here in the first place and you wouldn’t be playing too little too late twenty five years later.......
Ditto!
B U M P
Should have raided them years ago. These vans also drive illegals all over the United States from Phoenix.
EXAMPLE— A few Chinese restaurants in Cleveland get together and place an order for 10 slaves to work in the kitchen.
McCain must be really worried. He must be begging Obama to do something to save him. MCCain is a Democrat.
“Any particular reason this wasn’t done, oh say, twenty years ago?”
It is being done now to save McCain from losing the primary to JD. It is all for show.
They’ll be released on the promise to report to a hearing, I’m sure.
Bingo! I think you’ve won the prize. U da man.
Oh Please.. I Hope it’s Not a Catch n Release operation.
Sheriff Joe has bunks waiting..
LOL! Thanks. McCain must be freaking out. The poor rancher and his dog were murdered by illegals. Juan McCain must be shreiking to Soros and Obama that JD is going to win.
McCain:
“Rahm, Soros and Obama please help me! - I have to look tough on illegals for at least a month or two.”
“After the primary - Lindsay and I will push for amnesty - I promise or my name is not John McCain.”
“Oh and thanks for the book deal for Megan.”
McCain is a Soros stooge along with Obama.
It is Catch & Release until after McCain (thinks) wins the primary.
JD should win and they will all be released.
McCain was begging Obama, Rahm, Soros and Napolitano to help McCain. “I have been a team player for Mr. Soros - I shove a knife in all conservatives backs - I promise or my name is not Juan McCain.”
The best thing for us is to have Obama campaign for McCain. Everytime Obama tries to help someone out, they lose. PLEASE BHO HELP OMCCAIN.
“Should have raided them years ago. These vans also drive illegals all over the United States from Phoenix.
EXAMPLE— A few Chinese restaurants in Cleveland get together and place an order for 10 slaves to work in the kitchen.;
I know, Dennis. But Janet Napolitano stopped a number of these operation when she was here in Arizona.
Ping!
From NAFBPO today
ICE Busts Massive Human Smuggling Ring That Stretches Length of U.S.
More than 800 law enforcement agents swooped down on a massive human smuggling ring in Arizona early Thursday morning, delivering a “stunning blow” to a criminal network that helped shuttled illegal immigrants all around the country.
More than 800 law enforcement agents swooped down on a massive human smuggling ring in Arizona early Thursday morning, delivering a “stunning blow” to a criminal network that helped shuttled illegal immigrants all around the country.
Thursday’s strike is the largest coordinated action ever led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which partnered with eight other federal, state and local agencies to arrest 47 suspects in Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales and Rio Rico, Arizona.
“Alien smugglers are a scourge,” ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton said. “They violate our borders ... [and] profit at our expense by knowingly breaking our laws, day in and day out. Today we turned the tables on the smugglers.”
ICE agents targeted shuttle van services they believe have ferried thousands of illegal immigrants from southern Arizona to Phoenix, providing passengers fake $30 ride receipts and even coaching them on how to answer law enforcement agents if the buses were stopped at immigration checkpoints along the highway. From there the illegal immigrants were left at drop-houses or brought to shuttle services that offer rides to destinations all over the West Coast.
ICE alleges that the businesses are part of a larger smuggling operation that carries illegal immigrants over the border from Mexico “to the far corners of the United States” — places as far-flung as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.[snip]
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/15/ice-busts-massive-human-smuggling-ring-stretches-length/?test=latestnews
To Battle Cartels, Mexico Weighs Twitter Crackdown
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1981607,00.html
Mexico’s Zetas Drug Gang Now In El Salvador
President Mauricio Funes says Mexico’s Zeta drug gang has entered El Salvador and has made contact with local gangs in what appears to be an exploration of opportunities. Funes says the gang already has extended its operations into Central America, operating in countries like Guatemala and Honduras. But he adds it is not clear whether the violent gang has set up shop yet in El Salvador. Funes told reporters Wednesday that Central America needs a U.S. anti-drug aid plan designed specifically for the region. Mexico gets most of the $1.4 billion in U.S. anti-drug aid under the current Merida Initiative. Mexican cartels have increasingly been using Central American as a transit point to ship drugs toward the U.S. market. Source: DHS NOC
6 Dead As Drug Violence Hits Heart Of Acapulco
(See today’s M3 Report which relates)
Mexico’s drug violence has invaded the heart of one of its most famous beach resorts, with six people shot to death and five wounded during a raging gunbattle on the main boulevard in Acapulco’s tourist zone. No tourists were among the casualties, but the shooting killed at least three bystanders and occurred in broad daylight on the wide, palm-lined avenue within sight of major hotels and the beach. Drug gangs have staged shootouts in the city before, but seldom in broad daylight amid heavy traffic, and never with such a toll among uninvolved people. Federal police said they detained a 26-year-old and said he apparently worked for Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a U.S.-born drug capo who has been engaged in a bloody battle in the Acapulco area with former colleagues in the Beltran-Leyva drug cartel. Police said the gunbattle started when “armed men traveling in several vehicles opened fire on the occupants of another vehicle,” killing both men. It was unclear why the men were targeted. Source: DHS NOC
Mexico to Cut Off 24 Million Mobile Phones in Drug War
Mexico is bracing itself for communications chaos today, with 24 million mobile phone lines due to be disconnected as part of a government crackdown on organized crime. The government announced yesterday that only around 71 percent of the 83.5 million mobile lines in Mexico had been logged with a new register, and that the disconnection of the rest was set to begin. The register was designed to help combat the use of mobiles in crimes such as kidnapping and phone extortions threatening violence unless the victim hands over some cash. Confusion and organizational disarray have marred the plan. Despite plenty of coverage of the issue in the press in the last few weeks, many Mexicans were unaware of an obligation to submit their data before the deadline of midnight on Saturday, or they simply failed to get around to registering. Some mobile phone owners also refused to send the required text message with their personal information on the grounds that they saw the register as an affront to their civil liberties. Others pointed out that criminals could easily get around the new controls, either by using stolen phones or registering their own using different identities. Source: DHS NOC
To Battle Cartels, Mexico Weighs Twitter Crackdown
Mexican drug cartels appear to have adopted two new techniques to avoid military raids and police checkpoints: Facebook and Twitter. And so now the Mexican government trying to crack down on the use of Facebook and Twitter. Facebook has been on the radar of government officials who believe that it has been used to facilitate the abduction of the relatives of powerful businessmen and politicians, with kidnappers allegedly using the social networking site to discover the identities of a high-profile person’s family members. “Twitter is a serious problem not only to Mexican law enforcement agencies but to any law or intelligence agencies all over the world, because criminals, drug cartels and terrorist cells are getting more sophisticated in their methods of communication,” says Ghaleb Krame, a security expert at Mexico’s Alliant International University. Mexican drug cartels apparently use Twitter and Facebook not only to communicate with each other, but also to spread fear through local communities. Recently in Reynosa, people associated with one cartel used tweets to terrorize the city. One tweet read: “The largest scheduled shootout in the history of Reynosa will be tomorrow or Sunday, send this message to people you trust that tomorrow a convoy of 60 trucks full of cartel hitmen from the Michoacan Family together with members of the Gulf Cartel are coming to take the city and take everyone out alive or dead!” Schools and shops closed that day. A contingent of the liberal Revolutionary Democratic Party has now drafted a bill to closely monitor and regulate the use of Twitter and Facebook in Mexico. The bill would make sharing information that helps others break the law or avoid it a criminal act. Source: DHS NOC
These guys have been operating in plain sight for a long long time.
Gosh, South 6th Avenue is never gonna be the same again without the grubby vans.
Oh wait, never mind, they'll back in biz in a month, let the heat come off.
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