Historic Border Patrol Badge Artifact

East Arizona Part 12

After some hours, the coyote will then periodically traverse the roadway adjacent to the rest spot and look for sign.

church chicken

A favorite food of smugglers and the smuggled is Church’s Chicken. This specific chicken restaurant in Sierra Vista, Arizona, is the source of their favorite repast.

When the illegal alien herd arrives and restores themselves with the food and water they will then look for the coyote. He will drive past and signal and then return with the vehicle pointing northward and the illegal aliens will race toward the vehicle in groups of even ten. They have been told to drop everything that might encumber them — back packs, extra clothing — so that more of them can be squeezed into the vehicle.

In the case of drug smugglers, the contraband is sometimes loaded onto the shoulders of human mules and transported across the border to rendezvous points — even half way houses or drop houses — where the drugs can then be hidden in innocuous vehicles and transported to Tucson and Phoenix.

The recent changes to air transport security have made the transport of drugs by commercial aircraft more difficult.

Huge loads of drugs are taken north across the border in caravans of Toyota pickup trucks with drug smugglers holding huge tarps above the vehicles. The tarps are held several feet in the air and create shadows over the vehicles. The Toyotas and their drug loads are supposed to now be hidden from the view of surveillance aircraft and satellites. This is one popular method for the transport of drugs through the Arizona Indian reservations.

To stop this trafficking, many parts of the border have had six inch diameter surplus oil drilling pipe pounded into the ground every four feet for hundreds of miles. This drill pipe is quite difficult to cut and even if one pipe has been cut the chances of actually squeezing a vehicle through the widened space is chancy.

The Indian reservations also face a thousand vehicles a year being used by independent operators to smuggle somewhat smaller loads of drugs. The vehicles are usually stolen in Phoenix or Tucson and then driven south into Mexico where they are loaded with drugs and then driven north into the Indian country. The drug loads are then transferred to other vehicles and the original vehicle is burned to destroy all evidence. Yes, the Indian reservations have over 1,000 burned vehicles scattered over their lands each year.

TOMBSTONE NIGHT

As night falls on Tombstone, scores of isolated ranches face another night of terror and no help from our homeland security.

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