THE BORDER REPORT

This story's about a week old, but I like it because it sums up nicely just how entrepreneurial migrant smuggling has become on the U.S.-Mexico border.

An anonymous tipster notified Sonoran state police about Rita Lugo who was holding four migrant kids in a Nogales, Sonora, stash house. Police discovered 25 laser visas she was selling for $1,000 apiece to the children of illegal migrants.

Lugo was crossing the kids herself, she told police. Of course, if she were working for somebody else, she probably wouldn’t rat the person out. There are fates worse than death, after all. There are pliers.

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THE BORDER REPORT

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THE BORDER REPORT

All photos courtesy of Nuevo Día newspaper

Clearly, mi estimado lector, someone had insisted on murder.

Four people died in a sporadic gunbattle that stretched for more than 150 miles, ending in Hermosillo, Sonora, yesterday. An entire family was targeted, heavies from Sinaloa that've been working the Arizona-Sonora-Sinaloa corridor for years.

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THE BORDER REPORT

A year after the bloodiest battle in Mexico's drug wars, five gunmen of the brazo armado of the Gulf Cartel were arrested in the mining town of Cananea.

The Zeta's presence in Cananea comes as no real surprise, but it is interesting to watch the government of Sonora's open acknowledgement of the events. The State Preventive Police released the information in a press bulletin this morning.

According to police, the encounter between cops and Zetas occurred early yesterday morning when the five gunmen, riding in a Pontiac Grand-Am, jumped in front of a police vehicle and tried to disarm the state police officers inside.

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THE BORDER REPORT

For years, Mexico's narco-traffickers have feared one thing more than any: extradition to the United States. In the U.S. prison system, the thinking goes, these guys are rendered impotent, away from their castles, their money and their connections.

Then Grandpa Cóca threw a little party. (Photos and tip courtesy of my friends at Vanguardia in Coahuila. ¡Saludos, cabrónes!)

This is my favorite picture. The clown looks like a sicario himself and if you enlarge the photo, you see two other guys staring hard at the photographer. I especially like the clown's camouflage sun-visor topped with a backward American flag hat. Not very clown-ish, if you ask me. But ... interesting.

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