by Matthew Holloway | Mar 7, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents hunted down and successfully apprehended three suspected Mexican drug cartel scouts and one foot guide in southern Arizona after a harrowing chase across the lands of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Authorities have associated the suspects with the Cártel de Sinaloa, a foreign terrorist organization, .
CBP revealed that the first in the series of arrests took place Monday near the town of Maricopa, Arizona. That’s when agents attached to the Casa Grande Border Patrol Station encountered and apprehended an illegal immigrant from Mexico who confessed to crossing into the country illegally. A search of the man revealed equipment for communication and observation, commonly used by cartel scouts, in his possession.
The next day, CBP agents northwest of Marana in the Silverbell Mountains spotted and arrested an illegal immigrant from Mexico and another from Guatemala following up on reports of suspicious activity in the remote high elevation area frequented by drug and human traffickers. A search of the men also yielded communication and surveillance devices equipped with solar panels and batteries.
Near Pisinemo Village, on the Tohono O’odham Nation later on Tuesday, CBP agents arrested two Mexican nationals, with one of them confessing to be a foot guide for Los Memos, a group associated with Cártel de Sinaloa.
According to CBP, “All subjects were transported to the Casa Grande Border Patrol Station for further processing. In addition to being charged with illegal entry into the country, three of the five men will face criminal charges for human smuggling and conspiracy due to their involvement in smuggling activities.”
In a post to X, Cheif Patrol Agent Sean McGoffin shared footage of Casa Grande motorcycle units and a Blackhawk helicopter working together to execute the arrest. He wrote, “AZ DPS reported 5 subjects crossing SR86 on the Tohono O’odham Nation. Casa Grande motorcycle units and a Blackhawk made quick work of the sighting, arresting 5 Mexican illegal aliens. 3 are being prosecuted for Re-Entry After Removal and 2 were Expeditiously Removed.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Mar 3, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
A legal resident of the U.S. was brought to the San Luis Port of Entry from Mexico by her neighbor after she suffered a life-threatening allergic reaction and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers were able to render lifesaving first aid.
According to CBP, officers encountered the woman who was brought to the point of entry by her neighbor. The woman’s neighbor had spotted her unresponsive in her front yard with a swarm of wasps nearby. She appeared to be suffering a massive allergic reaction from being stung.
The officers began to administer cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the woman immediately upon assessing that she was unresponsive with blued skin and was not breathing. CBP Emergency Medical Technicians rapidly responded to the scene and began to provide additional care.
The Border Patrol EMTs provided lifesaving care to the woman until they were relieved by a San Luis Fire Department ambulance who transported the woman to an area hospital.
Chris Leon, Area Port Director for San Luis, said in a statement, “This lifesaving action by our officers and EMTs shows how CBP protects and serves our communities in a variety of ways.”
“I am extremely proud of our CBP personnel who quickly jumped into action to help and save this woman in need.” Just one day before CBP officers in Naco, AZ, uncovered an attempt to smuggle approximately 159 lbs. of meth hidden in a truck bed during a secondary inspection.
The following day, CBP Airborne and Maritime Operations & BORSTAR operators aided the Pima County Sheriff’s Office in rescuing an injured hunter near Arivaca, AZ, with Jose Muriente, AMO Deputy Director, Tucson Air Branch commenting: “This rescue is a testament to our unmatched aviation precision capabilities. I am incredibly proud of the professionalism our UH-60 crew and BORSTAR team showed today, to save the life of this hunter.”
According to CBP statistics, the Yuma Sector of the border, where San Luis is located, has seen a 72.2% reduction in illegal immigrant encounters since fiscal 2024 with a 33.9% reduction in Unaccompanied Children, a 60.4% reduction in individuals traveling as a family unit, and a 70.2% decrease in single adults.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
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 Matthew Holloway | Oct 26, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Reporting released last week could redefine the border issue for Republicans and worsen already negative views of the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of border security. An internal memo from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) obtained by NBC News revealed that 30% of the multi-billion dollar border surveillance system is non-functional.
“Nearly one-third of the cameras in the Border Patrol’s primary surveillance system along the southern U.S. border are not working, according to an internal agency memo sent in early October,” NBC News reported.
“The large-scale outage affects roughly 150 of the 500 cameras perched on surveillance towers along the U.S.-Mexico border.” According to the outlet “severe technical problems,” have beset the networked camera system known as the Remote Video Surveillance System. Border Patrol officials who spoke anonymously cast the blame on outdated equipment and outstanding repair issues.
The system has been in operation since 2011 and was designed to “survey large areas without having to commit hundreds of agents in vehicles to perform the same function.” Two CBP officials told NBC that while some repairs were affected in early October, more than 150 repair orders are still outstanding and some areas of the border are still not visible to CBP surveillance as a result.
A CBP spokesman told the outlet that 300 new towers using more advanced technology have been installed along the border, but didn’t address the gaps described by the anonymous officials.
“CBP continues to install newer, more advanced technology that embrace artificial intelligence and machine learning to replace outdated systems, reducing the need to have agents working non-interdiction functions,” the CBP spokesman said.
As reported by Reason, spiraling costs began with a $1 billion outlay in 2010 that notably led to a 2017 GAO report filled with damning internal and external assessments “regarding the performance, cost, and schedule for implementing the systems,” that resulted in the cancellation of future installations of the SBInet systems.
In a similar accounting, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), addressing NBC News’ findings wrote, “U.S. Border Surveillance Towers Have Always Been Broken.”
EFF Director of Investigations Dave Maass wrote that the report is not a bombshell, but said, “What should actually be shocking is that Congressional leaders are acting shocked, like those who recently sent a letter about the towers to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. These revelations simply reiterate what people who have been watching border technology have known for decades: Surveillance at the U.S.-Mexico border is a wasteful endeavor that is ill-equipped to respond to an ill-defined problem.”
Maas referred to a 2021 study from the DHS Inspector General which indicated that the situation had not improved.
“CBP faced additional challenges that reduced the effectiveness of its existing technology. Border Patrol officials stated they had inadequate personnel to fully leverage surveillance technology or maintain current information technology systems and infrastructure on site. Further, we identified security vulnerabilities on some CBP servers and workstations not in compliance due to disagreement about the timeline for implementing DHS configuration management requirements.
CBP is not well-equipped to assess its technology effectiveness to respond to these deficiencies. CBP has been aware of this challenge since at least 2017 but lacks a standard process and accurate data to overcome it.
Overall, these deficiencies have limited CBP’s ability to detect and prevent the illegal entry of noncitizens who may pose threats to national security.”
A set of follow-up plans, the Arizona Border Surveillance Technology Plan and the Southwest Border Technology Plan, then came into effect priced at approximately $6 billion and were successfully combined into the Integrated Surveillance Towers network in 2022. But the integration of these systems has evidently had little effect. With Maas noting, “Border authorities and their supporters in Congress are continuing to promote unproven, AI-driven technologies as the latest remedy for years of failures, including the ones voiced in the memo obtained by NBC News.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Daniel Stefanski | Sep 29, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Federal agents at the border were busy earlier this month to stop dangerous drugs from escaping into American communities.
On September 23, Nogales Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Area Port Director Michael W. Humphries announced that his port of entry had seized more than 1.5 million fentanyl pills over four days at the start of the month.
According to Director Humphries, the pills were discovered and apprehended on September 5 (approximately 527,000 pills in a car), September 6 (approximately 1,000,000 pills in a car), and September 8 (approximately 55,000 pills in a car battery).
Just days after these seizures, Humphries revealed that his officers had encountered over 341 pounds of illegal meth on a rail box car.
In Fiscal Year 2024, the Tucson CPB Field Office and Tucson Sector have interdicted more than 30,000 pounds of fentanyl, with one month left in the twelve-month calendar. Last fiscal year, over 25,000 pounds of fentanyl were apprehended in that section of the border.
These seizures are only a fraction of the drugs escaping detection from law enforcement into communities all across the nation. In 2022, The Washington Post published an article about the proliferation of fentanyl from Mexico to the United States, citing estimations from unnamed federal drug agents that “they are seizing 5 to 10 percent of the drugs coming from Mexico – if that much.” The article also stated that “agents say it has been nearly impossible to stop fentanyl trafficking” at the border.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
