Border securityArizona sheriff: Gunfight with Mexican cartels imminent
Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Paul Babeu says an armed conflict between his deputies and cartel members within the next thirty to sixty days is likely; a gun battle is all but certain, Babeu said, because his deputies and members of a regional SWAT team are now routinely working to stop smugglers from pushing cargo through Pinal; the cartels have stepped up their tactics in Pinal County by reinforcing smuggling routes with armed guards to ward off potential bandits, in addition to stationing more lookouts on high points of the landscape
Pinal county's sherrif expects combat with cartels // Source: azcapitoltimes.com
Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Paul Babeu is anticipating an armed conflict between his deputies and cartel members within the next thirty to sixty days.
Babeu made that prediction last week as he addressed an Ahwatukee Foothills Republican women’s club, and reiterated it Tuesday on the heels of a speech by DHS secretary Janet Napolitano asserting that border communities are safer than ever.
A gun battle is all but certain, Babeu told the Arizona Republic, because his deputies and members of a regional SWAT team are now routinely working to stop smugglers from pushing cargo through Pinal. “We have had enough,” Babeu said. “That’s why we’re going into these areas and sending a very clear message to the cartels: We see you and we’re not going to let you through.” An outspoken critic of U.S. immigration policy, Babeu said cartels have stepped up their tactics in Pinal County by reinforcing smuggling routes with armed guards to ward off potential bandits, in addition to stationing more lookouts on high points of the landscape. Some bandits are impersonating police, Babeu said, and he worries that smugglers will not know the difference.
“When we announce ourselves in Spanish, ‘This is the sheriff, drop your weapons, this is an arrest,’ I pray every time they will surrender,” Babeu said.
“In the event that any of them decide to point their weapons at our deputies … my directive is there had better be rounds going downrange to neutralize that threat.”
Babeu for months has faulted Napolitano, accusing her of downplaying border-related violence and of being “divorced from reality.”
Speaking at the University of Texas at El Paso, Napolitano said numbers show 30 percent less violent crime in border counties since the Southwest Border Initiative began in March 2009. Border apprehensions have decreased by 36 percent, she said, with increased manpower and technology as a deterrent.
“It is inaccurate to state, as too many have, that the border is overrun with violence and out of control,” Napolitano said. “This statement, often made only to score political points, is just plain wrong.”
Babeu, though, says apprehensions, drug seizures, and immigration-related pursuits are on the rise in his county, about seventy miles north of the border.
Last year, the Sheriff’s Office reported seizing 44,189 pounds of marijuana, initiating 335 vehicle pursuits, and making 370 calls to Border Patrol for assistance with suspected illegal immigrants. In 2007, deputies seized 28,903 pounds of pot, had 142 pursuits, and called Border Patrol 188 times.
“The border is not more secure than before and this problem hasn’t gone away,” Babeu said.
