GOOD REAL ESTATE MARKET IN SCC - FOR SMUGGLERS

With the recent spike in foreclosures and an abundance of available
rental properties in Santa Cruz County, drug and human smugglers are
finding it easier to obtain houses to use in their illegal operations,
law enforcement officials say.

At least once a month, local law enforcement officials bust a house
loaded with Mexican marijuana waiting to be shipped throughout the
United States - or with Mexican nationals awaiting the same fate.

And while one bust a month is hardly an epidemic, it's still higher
than Lt. Geraldo Castillo of the Santa Cruz County Metro Task Force
would like to see.

"It's happening in Santa Cruz County, and not necessarily only in
Nogales (or) only in Rio Rico," Castillo said. "Wherever there are
houses available, rentals, that's what they're looking for, available
homes - good neighborhoods are not exempt."

Some of the houses are clean and empty, some are trashed, and the ones
that are used to house illegal immigrants are often squalid, Castillo
said.

Border Patrol Agent Colleen Agle declined to comment on how often her
agency busts up local drop and stash houses. But she echoed Castillo's
assessment of the conditions in drop houses, where illegal immigrants
wait for transportation out of the area, saying they are "awful." The
houses are often covered trash and without running water, she said,
and they are a health hazard to the people living inside.

The smugglers prefer to run their operations out of nondescript rental
houses as opposed to houses they own outright, Castillo said. That's
because the rentals provide a layer of anonymity, they are temporary,
and authorities can't seize from the smugglers what they don't own.

As more people are putting their houses on the rental market in an
effort to keep them from going into foreclosure, smugglers have a
larger selection of neighborhoods to move their operations into,
Castillo said. And homes left vacant after a foreclosure are also
susceptible to criminal use.

Santa Cruz County, with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the
state and its location next to the border, provides a perfect storm of
opportunity. According to RealtyTrac, a California-based company that
tracks foreclosures nationwide, one in every 246 homes in the county
fell into foreclosure in January 2011, while in Rio Rico, the rate was
one in 96. The national foreclosure rate for the month was one in 494
homes.

Checkpoint Effect

Still, busts of stash and drop houses have slowed some since a spike a
few years ago after the Border Patrol installed its checkpoint along
Interstate 19, Castillo said. That move forced smugglers to stop in
Santa Cruz County and plan for the next stage of their journey -
getting around the checkpoint.

Nanci Pottinger, a real estate agent with Noginan Real Estate LLC,
remembers when the checkpoint first came in and the number of stash
houses and drop houses started to spike.

A few years back, she opened the garage door to show a house to a
prospective buyer and discovered "mounds and mounds of pot" stacked
and stinking in the garage.

That wasn't the first or last time Pottinger walked into a smuggler's
den when checking on her rental properties, she said, and the
experiences have made her more careful about who she rents to, even in
nice neighborhoods that don't usually attract suspicion.

"They love automatic garage doors, they want to have window coverings
that when shut are completely black, these are things they look for,"
she said.

More Proactive

Castillo said the Metro Task Force has been trying to take a more
proactive approach towards prosecuting leaders of illegal human- and
drug-smuggling houses in recent years.

Authorities are taking investigations into rental homes, landlords and
lessees further than in the past and are trying to catalogue the
players and disrupt the criminal organizations at their roots through
detective work, he said. Usually, it's a tip from a suspicious
neighbor that sets off the investigation, and landlords have also been
known to call in a tip if they spot something awry.

"The mentality has changed from going up there and taking the dope and
arresting them and put them in jail, and that's it," Castillo said.
"Now we're digging more into who's the owner. Who was the owner? How
many times has this property been sold? We're trying to do everything
and anything be more aware."

But, as always in law enforcement, catching the bad guys is a game of
cat and mouse. Law enforcement efforts are hampered because the
criminals have been getting smarter about covering their tracks,
Castillo said. At the same time, houses have been getting easier to
find, and prosecution for individuals running the operations continues
to be difficult.

Investigations are time-consuming and it is often difficult to prove
the renter was complicit in the crime beyond a reasonable doubt, as
criminal prosecution requires.

Prosecutors need less proof to seize the houses through the civil
code, and have been increasingly relying on that tactic, as they did
last year with a big marijuana bust in Vista Del Cielo subdivision,
Castillo said.

Still it's difficult to seize a house, and it's not usually necessary
because the landlords aren't complicit in the crime, Castillo said.

Pottinger, the real estate agent, said some people are willing to rent
to just anyone, but most people, even when their house is in trouble,
still care about who lives there and who lives in the
neighborhood.

"Maybe some people don't care who they rent to," she said. "But I
think most people are a little more careful now."