Are these attacks REALLY from other smugglers, OR could it be from those who are trying to STOP the invasion?

Question

Type Size Bandits attack migrants' car
3 gunmen open fire on vehicle in Chandler, kidnap driver
Sarah Muench
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 22, 2007 12:00 AM

Violence against groups of migrants by unknown armed bandits reached the Valley on Wednesday with a freeway attack in Chandler, the fourth similar incident in a month.

Three gunmen attacked a car carrying undocumented immigrants and kidnapped driver José Guzmán, who is believed to be a Mexican in his early 20s.

Guzmán, driving a car with five passengers, pulled off westbound Interstate 10 early Wednesday to get gas near Maricopa when two pickup trucks began to follow them, Chandler police said. advertisement




Guzmán continued westbound on I-10 to the eastbound Santan Freeway in Chandler and the trucks followed, forcing the vehicle onto the shoulder of the road shortly after they entered the Santan.

The occupants of the trucks opened fire with handguns, and at least one round hit the car, police said.

Police believe the attackers forced Guzmán into one of the trucks. Another attempted to kidnap the passengers by stealing the car but was unsuccessful and fled. The passengers were unharmed.

Sgt. Rick Griner, a Chandler police spokesman, said the passengers are in custody with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because they are undocumented.

The passengers, whose names have not been released, were interviewed and are cooperating but apprehensive because of their immigration status, Griner said.

"Their emotions are up," he said.

Griner said Guzmán and the passengers were on their way to California, but police have no description of Guzmán or the attackers and don't know the motive.

Gustavo Soto, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman in Tucson, said migrants who attempt to cross into the United States illegally increasingly face a new risk: cross fire from drug lords and human smugglers struggling for the control of the trafficking routes.

Several recent incidents have heightened authorities' concerns for the level of violence that the groups of traffickers are using to gain control of the routes, Soto said.


• On Feb. 8, four gunmen opened fire on a pickup truck carrying undocumented immigrants, killing a 15-year-old girl and two men at 7:30 a.m. just north of Tucson.


• About 12 hours earlier, on Feb. 7, 18 undocumented immigrants were robbed at gunpoint by four heavily armed men wearing ski masks near the border at Sasabe.


• On Jan. 27, four gunmen wearing military fatigues and berets, carrying assault rifles, shot and killed an Eloy man, who was driving a truck carrying undocumented immigrants near an Eloy farm field. The attackers, three Anglo men who spoke English and one Hispanic man who spoke English and broken Spanish, also shot 19-year-old Andrés de Jesús, of Oaxaca, Mexico.

In the Jan. 27 incident, detectives said the attackers could have been vigilantes, rival smugglers or criminals trying to steal drugs, although no drugs were found in the truck.

"Border bandits," criminals who operate in the desert and attack migrants, have also been escalating their attacks, he said.

Soto said the increase of violence is a result of traffickers' trying to maintain smuggling routes.

"It's a reflection of the frustration that (traffickers) feel since we intensified patrol in these areas and increased confiscation of their cargo of human beings and drugs," Soto said.

Either way, they are putting OUR lives at risk!!!! Innocent people could be caught in the cross-fire!!!

Answer 1

Idiot *ssholes! They need to be shot at!

And the people they are shooting at are innocent as well. That's craziness-just shooting to kill people for no valid reason. Just because they are illegal doesn't give ANYONE the right to harm them. Vigilantes or smugglers, they need a new *ss hole ripped in prison.

Answer 2

You know, I wondered the same thing when I read these reports. What led them to the belief that it was other smugglers? They don't give any info that shows that the attacks are "classic smuggler" attacks. If they are smugglers, why would they kill the valuable cargo? The purpose, supposedly, is to extort money from the families. Why are they hanging out on this side of the border, when they could just kidnap the people in Mexico and extort the money from there? It doesn't make sense. I think they are trying really hard not to let people find out that some crazed group of racists have declared war on illegals. That is entirely plausible, I think it is happening and anyone could have seen it coming.

Answer 3

This type of problem is certainly not new to Arizona or to our cities.But with the new "awareness " of some in this country it makes good fodder for their grist mills.Its been going on for years both in AZ and in Mexico. I'm not surprised or afraid of this activity since as I said this is nothing new to our state.No one wants to see innocent people killed in a cross fire between criminals.But to suspect it to be "racists vigilantes " is not something I would even consider. This is clearly drug/human deal or other criminal activity gone wrong and people are being killed in retaliation.
sad but a fact of life in a border state like ours.

Until our borders are secured by our US armed military and all illegal aliens deported,this type of crimes will continue.The time is now ..

Answer 4

Whether it is drug lords fighting for routes or vigilantes there is a easy solution. Secure our borders and remove the incentives that bring the illegals here to start with. Make the international drug dealers pay for their crimes with death sentences (their products cause countless deaths here).

Answer 5

I think it is smugglers. I hope it is!

Being against illegal immigration is entirely mainstream, at this point, even if some people look over their shoulders when they discuss it.

No one 'mainstream' wants to be associated with attacks on illegal immigrants.

Answer 6

Illegals are all criminals. Breaking the law = criminal. Here's more proof.

We have to secure our borders! When will Washington wake up?

Answer 7

The smugglers and dealers are all getting furstrated a desterate, and will do anything to make their money.