SMUGGLING OVERTAKES TINY TOWN

Drug Trafficking Brings New Trouble To Illegals Crossing Into Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Illegal immigrants crossing the Arizona-Mexico border
could be facing heightened danger as drug smuggling organizations move to
the small mission community of Altar, about 60 miles south of the Arizona
border, law enforcement officials said. Turf battles have always been a
part of the drug traffickers' game, said Rene Andreu, resident agent in
charge of the U.S. Customs Service's investigations office in Sells.
Tossing illegal immigrants into the mix can only complicate a dangerous
situation, he said.

"There's always a possibility that some migrant workers will cross paths
with these people, and that may not necessarily be good for them," Andreu
said. "We'll address it. We're reacting to it now."

Officials on both sides of the border say sophisticated, armed drug
trafficking organizations with roots in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, to the
east and Tijuana, Baja California Norte, to the west have been moving to Altar.

From there, illegal cargoes are driven to the border at Sasabe and even
more remote and isolated crossings to the west.

Throughout last year and as recently as last month, the U.S. Border Patrol
shifted more agents and resources to the western desert in anticipation of
an increased flow of migrants through the region. The move led to more drug
seizures, primarily of marijuana.

The outcome was more violent and determined efforts by drug smugglers
moving into the region.

"We're seeing an increase in the number of traffickers who are crossing
armed, and we're seeing it more primarily with some of the groups we are
watching to the west side of the (Tohono O'odham) reservation," Andreu told
The Arizona Daily Star.

"They are using encrypted radio technology, but they're also using even
simpler communications," Andreu said. "They have people situated on
hilltops in strategic locations on the reservation and are using radio
signals to report the movements of law enforcement."

The region has also become increasingly attractive to those who smuggle
people, although it has proved deadly for some migrants, including the 14
people found dead in the desert southeast of Yuma last May, said U.S.
Border Patrol supervisor Fred Esquivel in Douglas.

Areas such as Douglas and Naco, Ariz., are now being bypassed by smugglers
who stage their human-cargo movements deep in the desert of Chihuahua and
Sonora before moving directly to the border, Esquivel said.

February 20, 2002