THE BORDER REPORT

The border is abuzz this morning with the news that NORAD is now working drug interdiction. The incident happened early Sunday morning along the Arizona-Sonora border, federal officials aren't saying where. It's important to note that this was not an accidental interception. The North American Aerospace Defense Command noted the ultra-light crossing the border and dispatched the two F-16 Fighting Falcons from the air force base in Tucson to intercept the plane. High level Homeland Security Department officials tell me they weren't notified (which is absurd). Kind'a makes you wonder how long they'd been wanting to do that. Politically, NORAD's decision to get involved in drug interdiction comes at a good time for them. The day before they sent out the F-16s, Southern Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords had announced a bill she was co-sponsoring that would close a loophole for aviation smuggling. Basically, the bill simply modernizes the existing aviation smuggling laws to include ultralight craft. The proposed legislation will now make ultralight narcos susceptible to drug trafficking charges and aviation smuggling charges. Soon as this was announced, here comes NORAD. The F-16s followed the ultralight for 30 minutes, which is also interesting. Even the most professionally built ultralights only have a top speed of 70 mph. The F16 Falcon stalls out at less than 140 mph. The pilots must have been doing fly-bys the whole time. I've often wondered when the heavy, very obvious presence of three powerful military bases in Southern Arizona, Fort Huachuca, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Yuma Proving Ground, would finally come into play on border enforcement. I guess we  just found out. Also worth noting: The Air Force isn't sharing the information with Homeland Security. I'd love to be a fly on the wall while Sec. Napolitano makes those phone calls.

THE BORDER REPORT

Border law enforcement sources continue to insist that the Mexican Navy has Nacho Coronel in custody. What I'm told is that SEMAR is trying to extract his Army connections and that's why the detention is being quelled in the press, a point that is admittedly vague but all I have for now. Simply put, they haven't admitted to it yet. I'm also being told that his arrest is connected to former PAN presidential candidate Diego Fernández de Cevallos' kidnapping. The disappearance was reported May 15, Thursday. De Cevallos' truck was found Friday night in the state of Querétaro. Nacho Coronel was allegedly arrested Thursday evening or Friday morning in Guadalajara. I do wonder if the Sinaloans didn't sell him out; but if they did, that's treachery on the highest levels. Writing about Griselda Lopez's arrest/liberation, Malcolm Beith reminds us that the last time Joaquín Chapo Guzmán sold someone out – early 2008 when he gave up Alfredo Mochomo Beltrán Leyva – was reportedly done so to free his son, Ivan Archivaldo from prison.

THE BORDER REPORT

Three cups of coffee in and I dumped a handful of comments and permanently banned a few individuals who seem to do nothing but troll the site. I feel like a parent scrubbing crayon marks off the walls.

This site has no agenda other than to 1) illuminate the events occurring on this border that few media choose to do and 2) serve as a platform for the exchange of ideas and information. The vast majority of you choose to do so and that's great. Some of you disagree with me on trafficking issues, on politics, on illegal immigration and whatnot and that's also great. Some of you disagree with each other. Fine.

Read the full post

THE BORDER REPORT

Border law enforcement sources are reporting that Nacho Coronel Villarreal was captured last night in Guadalajara. The 56 year old drug lord is one of the ranking leaders of the Sinaloa Federation. They're also reporting that his nephew Martin Beltran Coronel, was arrested with him. Once again, I'm told, the Mexican Navy did the job, not the Army. Their arrests come two days after one of Joaquin Chapo Guzman's wives was arrested in Culiacan. Griselda Lopez was later released after giving a statement. It's key that she had been picked up after police in Sinaloa raided six or seven homes. Is the Mexican government finally moving against Sinaloa? We shall see. I'm out on an assignment today, and Internet access is scarce but if I'm able to update later, I will.

THE BORDER REPORT

Sure seemed that way anyway, last week after I covered two arrests for the Nogales International. Fifty-five people in all, all low-level dope smugglers from Patagonia, Sonoita, and Naco, Sonora. Feds alleged the Naco ring moved some 40,000 pounds of pot across the border and annoyed the Christ out of me when they kept referring to this group of low-life smugglers as a "Cartel." Holding up mugshots of the gordito leader of the gang, the Feds made it sound like they'd popped Shorty Guzmán, himself. The Arizona Republic's reporter stopped the press conference and asked, "wait a minute, was this a cartel or a group of smugglers?" "Oh, it was a Cartel," said one of the seven federal officials standing before the room. You could hear the capital C in her use of the word. "Well, which Cartel?" I asked them. Keep in mind, you had Elizabeth Kempshall, DEA Administrator for Arizona, Dennis Burke, U.S. Attorney for Arizona, and Matt Allen, Special Agent in Charge for ICE in Arizona, all up in front of the room. Seven seconds of silence. "We prefer to only say it was a Sinaloa cartel," Kempshall finally says. Does the obvious doubt cast on the significance of this drug crew stop the news reporters from playing it up? Fook no. Here's Tucson's KOLD: "Investigators on Mexican Cartel: We Broke It's Back" Way to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," there, you jagoffs. Now wipe your chin. The ringleader, Ignacio Alfredo Erives Martinez, it turns out, works for Marco Antonio Paredes Machado, head of the Agua Prieta narco-syndicate. I only got that because a Fed, a good one, slipped it to me later that day. Next up, the U.S. Attorney. "This was a sophisticated crew," Burke tells us. What made them sophisticated, you ask? Good question. "They used truck ramps as well as hidden compartments to breach our borders," he says. "They used counter-surveillance and two-way radios to monitor law enforcement in Cochise County." Two-way radios? You don't say. As opposed to one-way? The most interesting part of the story, the fact that these Naco narquitos had compromised the secretary of the Cochise County Attorney office's drug unit, Angelica Borquez, was limited. They tried to minimize her presence so much, they didn't even bring her charging documents to the press conference. I asked Allen, Kempshall, and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard what her name was and none of them knew. Finally got it from Cochise County Attorney Ed Reinhammer. Keep in mind these people drove two hours down from Phoenix for this press conference and they didn't know the name of the most interesting person arrested in this fiasco. Borquez, I'm told later, was the girlfriend of the lead smuggler's nephew. Charging documents filed in federal court show her using Erives' cellphone to call the U.S. Border Patrol and asking if there were any public listing of people deported. Officials downplayed her involvement, saying she was merely support staff. She was not support staff; she was the Secretary. Of. The. Drug. Unit. Let's not make her out to be an elite drug mole/moll here, either. She proved equally inept. The Arizona Attorney General's Office popped her on a wiretap and worked with her bosses to make sure she only had access to  irrelevant information. About the only honest man in the room that day was Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever. Asked whether these arrests changed anything in regards to trafficking in Cochise, he simply responds, "no. "They adapt and adjust very quickly and additionally, we don’t. We’re very predictable; they are not.” Anyway.