Posted on 09/01/2010 9:17:51 AM PDT by jazusamo
The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state.
The signs were posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, a major east-west corridor linking Tucson and Phoenix with San Diego.
They warn travelers that they are entering an "active drug and human smuggling area" and they may encounter "armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed." Beginning less than 50 miles south of Phoenix, the signs encourage travelers to "use public lands north of Interstate 8" and to call 911 if they "see suspicious activity."
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, attests to the violence. He said his deputies are outmanned and outgunned by drug traffickers in the rough-hewn desert stretches of his own county.
"Mexican drug cartels literally do control parts of Arizona," he said. "They literally have scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and they literally control movement. They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has.
"This is going on here in Arizona," he said. "This is 70 to 80 miles from the border - 30 miles from the fifth-largest city in the United States."
He said he asked the Obama administration for 3,000 National Guard soldiers to patrol the border, but what he got were 15 signs.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I agree. What has McCain done about this? This is a good time to push him on the problem, while the election is still pending. We know once he is elected he will be all about the poor Mexicans and stab Americans in the back.
We need someone who lives in the area to take photos of the signs and send them to Beck, etc. I am not in the desert anymore or I would volunteer.
I thought about this when I witnessed a scene at a local weekend flea market. This flea market is held in the parking lot of a major rail transit station.
It's Sunday afternoon, and I'm poking around some merchants' booths over near the fence.
I overhear a man address someone. "You wit de po-lice?"
It's a middle-aged man in a light blue shirt and a skinny older woman. The woman laughs dismissively. No, she isn't. No, she doesn't see anything.
The man turns back to discussing something with someone at his booth. I watch discreetly, at a distance.
Then this guy goes up to the low chain-link fence and is chatting with someone on the other side. He's leaning backwards, and so is the other guy, back to back, but chatting out of the sides of their mouths. I watch Mr. Blue Shirt take something out, pass it to the guy across the fence. Money changes hands. The guy across the fence slinks off.
Mr. Blue Shirt's next customer is an adolescent kid on a bike. The transaction is more open and obvious this time. Both seem to be almost laughing about it.
Done with his second customer, Mr. Blue Shirt turns back to manning his flea market booth and selling whatever other legit junk he's there to sell.
Mr. Blue Shirt reminded of the character Sportin' Life in the operetta Porgy and Bess, though of course he was not so nearly sharply dressed.
I was also reminded of how Mr. Blue Shirt is aiding in the destruction of his own community. So much of what was for sale at that flea market was created by and for a certain ethnic group as an expression of ethnic pride. What Mr. Blue Shirt was doing was destroying his own people.
And yes, ultimately Mr. Blue Shirt must have some parts of his supply line that run south of our border.
Afghanistan
Nearly all the marijuana and the imported meth come from Mexico via cartel. If all the drugs come from Afghanistan then why would we have such a smuggling issue on the Mexican border?
That was a joke Tammy. Afghanistan provides most of the drugs to China, not us.
Though I must say I did catch a tenant leaving and growing a large pot plant on the back stairs of apartments by us the other day.
Got the doctor note I guess, but they are pot heads and that if anything is their condition.
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