Tackling Violent Crime:

SPECIAL UNIT TRIES TO PLUG DRUG CORRIDORS

A few miles west of Green Valley - and just feet from a highly
trafficked roadway - lies a patch of desert trashed by drug smugglers
and illegal immigrants.

Piles of discarded clothing, backpacks and water jugs, wrapped in
brown paper (for camouflage) mar the landscape.

A toddler's pink sock lies in the dirt near several burlap sacks used
to smuggle narcotics.

The scene is a common one in remote areas of the Interstate 19
corridor, said Deputy Paul Petropolous of the Pima County Sheriff's
Department.

"But we've been seeing more and more cases like this one, where
they're getting closer to homes and to people," he said. "The coyotes
are getting pretty brazen."

Petropolous is a 10-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department and a
member of the Border Crimes Unit, a special squad formed by Pima
County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik in April of 2007 to fight the increase
of violent crimes occurring along southern Pima County's volatile
smuggler corridors.

The unit, made up of two sergeants and 14 deputies, patrols the desert
regions near Green Valley, Tubac, Ajo and Arivaca.

Its focus is the rising problem of bajadores - the groups of
Spanish-speaking bandits who stake out smugglers' routes to rob,
assault and sometimes kidnap migrants or drug mules.

The unit conducts highway interdictions as well as night operations
with thermal cameras, and is currently undergoing specialized training
from the Department of Homeland Security.

"We deal with anything that has to do with violence created by the
border," Petropolous said.

Though unit members detain any illegal immigrants they find and turn
them over to Border Patrol agents, immigrants are not the targets --
that's the Border Patrol's job. Sheriff's officers don't have the
authority to enforce federal immigration laws.

For that reason, Border Crimes Unit officers often won't pursue a
vehicle they believe is carrying only illegal immigrants.

The other reason: "Many of these human smugglers have a real disregard
for human life, and won't hesitate to risk the lives of everyone in
the vehicle by speeding and driving erratically," he said. "We don't
want to put anyone in danger."

Petropolous says he's witnessed the cut-throat behavior
first-hand.

If smugglers are traveling in a caravan of several vehicles carrying
both illegal immigrant and narcotic loads, drivers will often
"sacrifice" the human load during a police chase, he said, veering the
vehicle off the road or into law enforcement vehicles to distract
authorities from the one transporting the narcotics.

Not that those who smuggle migrants from local drop-off points to
Phoenix or Tucson aren't paid well - the going rate is about $500 a
head, said Petropolous.

"The problem is so incredibly multi-layered ... it's like a war zone
out there, right under our noses."

Recently, controversy arose over Dupnik's proposed plan to deputize a
Border Patrol agent who would work with the Border Crimes Unit,
opening up communication lines between the state and federal agencies.

Agents and officers literally can't communicate with each other due to
differing radio technologies, which can be dangerous when both are
scouting in the same location.

The issue went before the Pima County Board of Supervisors in January
but was pulled from the agenda when the public expressed a generally
unfavorable reaction.

Detractors said local and federal law enforcement should remain
separate and that deputizing federal agents would blur the lines
between the duties of each agency.

Coalicion de Derechos Humanos ("The Human Rights Group") argued that
it would promote racial profiling and "criminalize" immigrants.

Others said the move would promote distrust of Sheriff's officers and
discourage the public from reporting certain crimes - for fear the
Border Patrol would show up at their front door.

But Robert G. Daniels, spokesperson for the U.S. Border Patrol, said
that both agencies would greatly benefit from the sharing of
intelligence.

"It was never our intent to 'cross-pollinate' - to have more than one,
or at the most, a handful of agents working with the Sheriff's
Department," he said.

"It would make it a lot easier if a Border Patrol agent were assisting
the squad," said Petropolous. "There are so many more of them, and
they know the terrain better than we do."

Despite the defeat, Sheriff's officials say they hope to present
another plan before the Board of Supervisors.

And by all accounts, the Border Crimes Unit is proving to be a
success.

In December, a grant from the state allowed the unit to nearly double
its number of officers, and officials say the number of violent border
crimes in the region has decreased since they came on the scene less
than a year ago.

As Petropolous says, "We're dedicated, we're making progress."