by Daniel Stefanski | Jan 11, 2025 | News
By Daniel Stefanksi |
A dangerous discovery was made in southern Arizona.
On Tuesday, Michael W. Humphries, the CBP Port Director of the Port of Nogales, alerted his followers on X that his team had uncovered a shocking load of weapons at the end of the previous year. He wrote, “CBP officers working outbound operations at the Nogales POE seized a rocket launcher and 2 rocket propelled grenades hidden in a car headed to Mexico. The cache was likely intended to protect the cartels and their fentanyl production labs in Mexico.”
Fox News journalist Bill Melugin noted the announcement from the CBP official, adding, “CBP seizes a RPG being smuggled into Mexico at the Nogales, AZ port of entry. Drugs go north, guns go south.”
In an exclusive comment to AZ Free News, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen reacted to the news, saying, “This is a grim reminder of the dangers law enforcement officers are facing as a result of the Biden administration and our Governor not doing everything in their power to secure our southern border. Arizonans are eagerly awaiting when President Trump reinstates sanity and upholds the rule of law in our country, and Republicans at the Arizona Legislature will give him our full support in this important mission.”
One of Arizona’s top law enforcement officials, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, told AZ Free News that “the seizure of these military style weapons illustrates the networking between transnational-criminal cartels and those working on U.S. soil.”
The discovery in southern Arizona is another daily reminder of the dangers faced by the increasingly open and lawless border – especially over the past four years. While much attention is spent on the inbound traffic at and around the ports of entry at the border, there are too few resources and not enough attention to adequately identify the outbound traffic back into Mexico – like this shipment of seized weapons in Nogales. President-elect Donald J. Trump will be taking office in less than two weeks, and he and his team have vowed to crack down on the issues faced by Americans and law enforcement agents due to the porous border.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Oct 15, 2023 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Thousands of migrants from potentially troublesome countries are being apprehended at America’s southern border, while many others could be slipping past law enforcement.
On Tuesday, Fox News journalist Bill Melugin reported that “Internal CBP data provided & confirmed by CBP sources reveals thousands of ‘special interest aliens’ from mostly Middle Eastern countries have been apprehended by Border Patrol while crossing into U.S. illegally over last 2 years.”
Melugin clarified that “a special interest alien is a term used by the U.S. government to refer to people coming from countries that have conditions that favor or harbor terrorism, or pose a potential national security to the U.S.”
From 10/1/2021 to 10/4/2023, the following apprehensions by nation of origin were reported:
- Syria: 538
- Yemen: 139
- Iran: 659
- Iraq: 123
- Afghanistan: 6,386
- Lebanon: 164
- Egypt: 3,153
- Pakistan: 1,613
- Mauritania: 15,594
- Uzbekistan: 13,624
- Turkey: 30,830
The decorated reporter added some concerning context for his report, writing, “Border Patrol sources tell me they have extreme concerns about who is coming into the country because they have little to no way of vetting people from these special interest countries. I’m told unless they have committed a crime previously in the US, or they are on some sort of federal watchlist, there’s no way to know who they are because most of their home countries don’t share data/records with the US so there is nothing to match a name to when BP agents run fingerprints.”
The number of apprehensions from ‘special interest countries’ follows continuing reports of an increase in the number of suspected terrorists who have been encountered this fiscal year, along with the ‘gotaways’ who have escaped detection from law enforcement. Over 150 suspected terrorists have already been nabbed over the past eleven months, which was a stark rise from the previous year (when 98 suspected terrorists were arrested at the southern border). According to CBP data, only 26 total suspected terrorists were apprehended at the southern border from Fiscal Years 17-21.
If the issues of “special interest nations” and “suspected terrorists” apprehensions weren’t bad enough for the country, the number of ‘gotaways’ present a far-greater problem for the United States. More than 1.5 million of these individuals are estimated to have escaped capture by border officials, meaning that they likely are anywhere within the American homeland. Adding to fears from law enforcement, the identities and motives of these aliens are almost entirely unknown.
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen addressed this danger in his statement about the horrific terrorist attack in Israel over the weekend. Petersen said, “Our own country must remain vigilant, as our wide open border, ignored by Joe Biden and Democrats, remains one of the greatest threats to our national security. This same situation can happen at anytime on our own soil, and we call on the federal government to take immediate action.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
