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.