POT - $3.5 million dumped smugglers flee, 4,480 lbs Pot abandon

[Wolfmoon]

Smugglers Abandon $3.5 Million in Narcotics

Monday, October 24, 2011

Tucson, Ariz. – Border Patrol agents assigned to the Tucson Sector, a component of the Joint Field Command-Arizona, seized 4,480 pounds of marijuana worth more than $3.5 million in the West Desert.

Border Patrol Agents Seize nearly 4,500 pounds of marijuana in Ajo, Ariz. Photo Credit: Courtesy U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Last night, Ajo Station agents assigned to the Papago Forward Operating Base responded to detection technology while a Customs and Border Protection helicopter provided aerial support. Agents identified and began tracking tire tracks that led to two abandoned Chevrolet pickup trucks loaded with marijuana bundles.

Inside the vehicles, agents found a total of 4,480 pounds of marijuana worth an estimated $3,584,000. The vehicles and narcotics were seized and transported to the Ajo Station for processing. (Photos available)

“The continued vigilance by the men and women of the Ajo Station combined with our enhanced detection technology continues to disrupt the efforts of transnational criminal organizations operating in the western corridor of the Tucson Sector,” said Acting Deputy Chief Manuel Padilla.

The probability of arrest and the penalties for drug smuggling have had an impact on smugglers. Oftentimes, they choose to abandon their drug loads rather than risk apprehension and prosecution.

CBP welcomes assistance from the community. Citizens can report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol by calling (877) 872-7435 toll free. All calls will be answered and remain anonymous.

 

[waltky]

How traffickers are outwitting the gov't....

Smugglers Have ‘More Effective’ Intel Network Than US Gov’t.
October 20, 2016 -- Drug smugglers and human traffickers “have a very effective intelligence gathering system” that is “much more effective than what we have in the U.S. government,” former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent A. J. Irwin said Wednesday during a panel discussion at the National Press Club in Washington.

The discussion highlighted recent statistics from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency showing a dramatic ten-fold increase in the number of illegal immigrants claiming asylum when they reach the U.S. border since 2009. Irwin said that smugglers quickly find out about changes in U.S. law or policy and then move to exploit them. “So when there’s a process like asylum, where there’s some kind of policy that happens here that affects detention or your ability to get parole or whatever here in the United States, it travels in... their criminal organization’s intelligence network,” Irwin said. “Smuggling organizations, whether it be narcotics or people, they have a very effective intelligence gathering system,” he continued. “And I say this, I get criticized a lot, it’s much more effective than what we have in the U.S. government because they will share the information amongst organizations and then they move people for each other and share the profits.”

(Center for Immigration Studies)​

“When people from other countries arrive in Mexico, it becomes a springboard into the United States,” Irwin explained. “That’s why… we went down to South America and targeted an organization that was operating there. Smugglers like to operate far away from the United States because they believe that they’ll never be arrested even if they are charged and indicted with some crime, that they’ll never actually be brought to the United States and brought to justice.” “The number of people arriving at U.S. land borders and ports of entry to file asylum applications has soared dramatically in the last year, and is now about 10 times higher than it was in 2009,” according to an report entitled Border Asylum Claims Up Tenfold Since 2009 by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), which sponsored the panel discussion.

A refugee seeking asylum must be unable or unwilling to return to his or her native country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution, according to USCIS. The CIS report states that 80 percent of the aliens seeking asylum since 2014 are from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. “The security of our border goes way beyond our border. It doesn’t start there, it starts in Quito Ecuador; it starts in Nicaragua,” agreed former U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Officer Hipolito Acosta.

MORE

 

[TheOldSchool]

All the more reason to legalize it.