The kind of reporting this country needs ...

The Border Reporter (Michel Marizco) educates us about the 'U.S.-Mexico Pipeline'

After reading this narco-analysis I was sent the other day, I’m starting to think we should dump the noun “border.” Border implies boundary, a line, a control. What we have, this federal report shows, is a conduit.

Shadow Wolves or Romancing the Border ...

A western tale: Elite American Indian tracking unit targets drug smugglers, narcotics by Brady McCombs

In this tight-knit, 14-member unit of American Indian drug trackers, the success of one is the success of all. The Shadow Wolves moniker refers to the way, like a wolf pack, when one finds its prey — a load of marijuana or better yet, the drug runners themselves — he or she calls in the rest.

The US President may not plan, but the Mexican 'drug lords' do ...

According to an Associated Press article (as published on the Arizona Daily Star Website)

Mexican drug lords are taking over the business of smuggling migrants into the United States, using them as human decoys to divert authorities from billions of dollars in cocaine shipments across the same border.

U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that drug traffickers, in response to a U.S. border crackdown, have seized control of the routes they once shared with human smugglers and in the process are transforming themselves into more diversified crime syndicates.

The drug gangs get protection money from the migrants and then, in effect, use them to clear the trail for the flow of drugs.

Undocumented aliens are used "to maneuver where they want us or don't want us to be," said Alonzo Pena, chief of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona.

Gustavo Soto, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol in Tucson, said smugglers are carrying drugs along paths once used primarily by migrants. ...

One man's crime syndicate is another man's army.

Depend on it. What ever steps the U.S. takes the objective will be to make the rich richer and the world more dangerous for the rest of us.

Border depression ...

Tucson Weekly writes about Arizona's border quandary: The Corridor of Killing --A rash of bloody violence is taking lives on both sides of the border by Michael Marizco

"I interpret this as belief by the bandidos that it's actually easier to hit on the U.S. side than on the Mexican side," said the official, who spoke to the Tucson Weekly on condition of anonymity.

Another shoot-up of a vehicle, this time just 20 miles south of Tucson ...

UPDATE 4/1/07 -- Here's an article with more info about the gun attack on a vehicle full of people driving from the border north towards Tucson:

Drug hijackers mistakenly open fire on 23 migrants, killing 2 by DAVID L. TEIBEL and CLAUDINE LoMONACO, Tucson Citizen

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Again, a vehicle carrying people crossing the border illegally has been shot at and people have been killed.

Members of the group described bullets cutting into the rear of the pickup as the driver tried to flee, Kastigar said. After a brief chase, the driver stopped and the people inside ran into the desert.

When deputies arrived they found the two dead and at least one wounded person.

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Arizona Republic: Gunmen ambush migrants, killing 2

Big money in smuggling, drugs or people ...

First came the war on drugs and the militarization of our police forces. Now we have the war on undocumented immigrants. Step by step we are heading for a police state.

Authorities broke up what they call a 'human smuggling' ring involving travel agencies. Six Phoenix-area travel agencies were involved.

The agencies arranged for one-way travel to destination cities across the nation, in many cases through McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Goddard said the year-long investigation uncovered ticket sales worth about $2 million.

I am glad they caught these people but I would prefer that we would approach our border problems in a more rational manner. One that didn't make smuggling drugs and immigrants such profitable enterprises that they corrupt our society at all levels.
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Arizona Republic: Major Ariz. human smuggling operation broken up by Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press