GAO Report Shows Most Border Fires Started By Illegals And Drug Traffickers

 Here is a report from the Government Accountability Office on wildfires in Arizona between 2006 to 2010. This past 2011 fire season is not included. Border Patrol sources tell me the bulk of the fires on the AZ/Mex border this season were started by illegal aliens and drug cartels. Some of those fires were actually started in Mexico right on the border with the distinct intention of using it as a diversion to smuggle illegals and drugs into the country. Some of those fires started by criminals were the horseshoe II and the Monument Fires. Read the findings here.latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/11/illegal-immigrants-border-fires-arizona.html.

This pic is of the Coronado Mountains in Sierra Vista, AZ. This fire was started by drug cartels. It destroyed 60 homes and 6 businesses.

Zetas drug cartel active in the U.S. DESPITE what DHS Secretary Napolitano says!

 Ever since DHS Secretary Napolitano was appointed to her position, she has boasted about how the southern border is quote, "more secure than ever". Many of us are not sure what southern border she is talking about but sane Americans know she is not talking about the U.S. southern border. The FBI, as well as other federal agencies, has said that the drug cartels from Mexico in many ways present more of a security threat to the U.S. than islamic extremists do. How can federal agencies contradict each other like that? The answer is simple, politics! Napolitano must do what her handlers tell her to do and that is spouting out how more illegals have been deported under Obama than any other President. A blatant lie! And how Customs and the U.S. Border Patrol have operational control of most of that border. A blatant lie! Also, how cartel violence has NOT spilled over the border into the U.S. Another blatant lie! Just these past two weeks have showed that everything Nappy is saying about the cartels not being a danger to us citizens is false! Here is one story on the Chicago area Zetas take down last week. There is a quote from Nappy in the link about her warning to the cartels to not bring their violence over here. Well it was here before you took the job Nappy. In fact, the cartels operate and supply drugs to over 2500 cities and towns across the U.S. This story reports of a shootout in Houston just this week involving the Zetas and most likely another cartel. A Sheriffs Deputy was wounded in the shootout but it is unclear whether he was shot by the assailants or the victim of friendly fire in the confusion. Here is a map of drug cartel territories and routes in Mexico.

 Here is a pic of just some of the pot our border group has caught. Yeah, seems like a secure border all right if just average everyday Americans can roam the desert 30+ miles north of the border and come across this.

Spillover violence from Mexican drug cartels is here and here to stay until we have a federal government willing to clamp down and secure our southern border. But due to political correctness and the government not wanting to offend Mexico, we will see increased violence in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. Local and state law enforcement have had to pretty much go it alone in combating this problem with little funding or help from the inept feds. Unfortunately, more American citizens, especially our law enforcement, will become victims in this war!

War On Drugs A Waste Of Money?

 Americas longest war in it's history is not the war on terrorism but the war on drugs. For decades now, and untold billions of dollars later, we only need to look at the record amount of drugs being seized at our borders and in our parks and national forests to see that we are no better off now than many years ago when it comes down to eliminating drugs from our streets. Sure, every so often a huge drug bust is made and the price on the street goes up in some areas. But with a seemingly unlimited supply crossing our borders every year, it seems a new approach might be needed. Drug seizures are on the rise again after falling in 2010. In the San Diego sector alone, marijuana seizures have already tripled their 2010 levels to over 65K pounds and we still have two months left in the fiscal year to go. Cocaine seizures tally 1,368 pounds, also a record level in that sector from last year. However, record levels of seizures does not guarantee that lower levels of drugs are hitting our streets. The only hard fact to take from record seizures is that record numbers of drugs are being produced south of our border. Recently, the Mexican authorities found a 300 acre pot farm in Baja California, Mexico. While it was reportedly destroyed, do we trust Mexican law enforcement given the huge history of corruption in that country? Another front in the war is inside our borders in our parks and national forests. Every year, more and more states report wild pot farms growing in the parks and forests inside their borders. This story is the latest to come out about that front. Over 460,000 plants were removed. At a potential profit of 5K a plant (as reported on CNBC), that is over 2.3 billion in revenue for the cartels in Mexico from just that one wild farm. Not only is it dangerous to those that go inside these areas for recreation, but do not forget about the environmental disaster taking place. Runoff from fertilizers and chemicals enter those streams, lakes and rivers and causes untold harm to both fauna and flora. Yet not one environmental organization has come out and said anything about this disaster. The same goes for their lack of condemnation about the over twenty-five million pounds of trash on our border. More and more people are coming across armed men, mostly illegal aliens, guarding their wild pot farms. This is a problem that will not go away any time soon. In upstate New York, pot growers go into the corn fields when the corn is growing and plant their pot so it is hidden by the corn plants. Then they harvest the pot before the corn is harvested. One way these tactics are discovered is by helicopter. But since New York is out of money they have reduced these flights by as much as 60 to 70 percent. Problems like this are going on all over the country, not just New York. The question is though, do we continue going down the same road or do we look for a new approach?

Increase in Bandit Activity in the Desert

 The pirates off the coast of Somalia are called that because of the fact they go out and steal ships and tankers and kidnap crews and hold them for ransom. Well the same thing is going on at the southern border involving drug and human cargo. Crews of illegals called "rip off crews" or "rip crews" by Border Patrol stalk the desert at night looking for anything they can get their hands on. They will steal from us Americans but mostly rip off the drug and human smuggling cartels by stealing the drugs being shipped, or taking control of the human load being transported through the desert and bringing them to a safe house further north to hold for ransom. It was just such a bandit crew that the Border Patrol Special Ops Team had under surveillance in December of last year outside of Rio Rico. When they announced their presence to the bandits a shootout occurred and Agent Brian Terry was killed. It was also found out that the AK-47 rifle used to kill Agent Terry came through the BATF's "Project Gunrunner" program where they let weapons be sold on the border knowing full well that they would end up in the drug cartels hands. Even when the gun store owners are vigilant and alert the BATF about a suspicious purchase they would ok the sale. An ICE agent in Mexico was also killed with a weapon under this program.
 These rip off crews are made up of illegals out of Tucson or Phoenix which comb the desert at night looking for something to steal. They are mostly military trained and will not think twice about shooting you. To combat this threat, the drug cartels are now arming the drug loads with more and more weapons. Normally, if a drug load has an armed escort, only one or two men will be armed. Usually those carrying the bundles of drugs are not armed. However, during my last operation in the desert last month, a local resident told me of a huge bust Border Patrol made a week before we arrived to conduct our operation. This drug load had twenty-four men carrying bundles and six men armed with AK-47s. That is the biggest armed load I have ever heard of. Luckily, Border Patrol got them all without incident. As far as I know, the drug cartels have a standing order that their people are not allowed to shoot law enforcement on our side of the border. Shooting across the border is allowed though. With the cartels arming more of their people, a shootout involving the cartels and border volunteer groups is all but inevitable. The last drug traffickers we came across were not armed but it is only a matter of time before we run into some that are. With more and more small sized border volunteer groups out in the desert, chances are also increased that one will run into bandits and possibly get into a shootout. During our last operation we discovered an illegal who told us he was part of a group of twelve that ran into three men with AK-47s and the group split and ran. He said he had been walking the desert lost for three days without food and water. Could be a lie, could be the truth, we do not know. One thing is for sure though. This threat will be around for a long, long time. Even the Border Patrol Intelligence team has asked us to take care of these guys if we run into them. Can you guess what "take care" of them means? If we come across them and they are itching for a fight, then we will have no choice but to.

Cartels own the high ground in southern AZ.

It is coming to light now among not only law enforcement but the inept politicians (finally), that at any one time some 100 to 200 cartel spotters are on hills and mountains in southern Arizona directing both vehicle borne loads and foot loads of drugs through the Sonoran desert. Cartel spotters will stay anywhere from a few days to a month or more on their hilltops, coordinating through radio and cell phones, to the loads trying to elude law enforcement. I have personally been on a few of these hills as you see in the video below. I have also personally seen these men being dropped off by helicopter in both daylight and night. Once on top of these hills they have a commanding view for miles in every direction. At these locations you will find camping equipment such as sleeping bags and coleman stoves. Canned food is stored there also as well as binoculars and solar panels to charge kenwood radios. We even know some of the frequencies they use but I won't mention them here. Also, some are equipped with a "hide" area which the spotter slides into to hide from law enforcement helicopters scanning the hills. Some of these helicopters are equipped with a thermal infrared camera which detects body heat. However, plastic defeats thermal by shielding the body heat from the camera. The spotter in this video built a semi circle wall of rocks high enough to be able to slide into it, then laid black plastic on top, then added another layer of rocks to hold down the plastic. Then fresh vegetation was added to camouflage the plastic. If a helicopter came by to see if anybody is on the hill, the spotter just slides down into the hide to wait until the helicopter leaves. No need for high tech applications when you are spotting. Binoculars work just fine during the day and at night, law enforcement vehicles are well lit up to give the spotters miles of notice that law enforcement is in the area and the spotter will redirect the drug traffic or tell the load to hold up and wait until law enforcement departs the area. Very simple! This video is from one such location. Took one hour and forty five minutes to climb this hill. Rattlesnakes and loose rock were present the whole time. Spotters also leaves piles of garbage around which means thousands of flies will be present to annoy you while you are up there.

Now a news organization has finally done a few video reports on this. This report was with DEA on the Tohono O'Odham reservation where some of the most used spotter locations are located. Here is the link. These are good reports with excellent explanations from the DEA agents on how the spotters operate.

Located below are a few pictures from what we have found on these hilltops. First picture is of a spotter location close to the border that has a small cave in it. Second pic is from a hill over 35 miles north of the border. Notice the binoculars on the rocks on the left. Also note the plastic for the roof of the hide.

 

Next pic is from a smaller hill that only took a few minutes to climb but notice the rocks marker on the southern side of the hill.

This last picture is one of the solar panels we found with a kenwood radio charger.

These spotters are mostly living in this country working for the cartels. They have their observation posts and are resupplied on a regular basis. Most likely they are armed with at least a handgun. I have not heard any reports of spotters getting into shootouts with law enforcement or border watch groups yet. The way the spotters operate are almost the same way our special ops forces operate in the mountains of Afghanistan where they create a "hide" and observation post and report on enemy combatant troop movements but do not engage the enemy. 

The spotters goal is to keep law enforcement away from the drug load until the load is out of his area of operation and passed on to the next spotter. Then he will arrange pickup or hike down the hill and through the desert home until his next shift. When we find these hills, we document them on maps but do not disturb what is on the hill as we do not want the spotters to know we were there.