THE BORDER REPORT

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is no more. The Arizona Daily Star's got the scoop on the story here. But there's another armed group floating around down on the border (I mean, besides the Sinaloans). Federal agents have received complaints from hunters in Southern Arizona of being accosted by armed white men in camouflage who told the hunters they are with the Department of Homeland Security, sources say. They weren't affiliated with the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, but law enforcement doesn't know yet who is driving this group, what their members are like, and what their motives are.

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THE BORDER REPORT A group of  restrictionists who last year saw one of their supporters arrested for the murder of a Mexican-American family in Southern Arizona, plans a return to this border armed with guns and rhetoric. SonoranNews.com, a conservative Web site in Arizona, reports that the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, plans to come down to the border armed with rifles this time and will "forcefully engage, detain, and defend our lives and country from the criminals who trample over our culture and laws.” Led by Chris Simcox, an L.A. transplant to the Arizona border a decade ago, the group has attracted vast interest from the world media; mostly, I'm convinced, because reporters wanted to see them shoot an illegal migrant. Faced with criticism and skepticism, the Minuteman Project scaled back its initial operations in 2005, saying they were only going to observe and report illegal border activity to the U.S. Border Patrol and that volunteers would only be allowed to carry handguns. When that endeavor failed to attract much attention, the group, now divided amongst itself, turned to raising funds by claiming to erect Israeli-military-style fencing to stop the smugglers. All I ever saw was a barbed wire fence that went up near the Ladd Ranch around Naco, Ariz. Then there were problems with the money; as a non-profit organization, the group seemed to have claimed and spent most of its reported cash but former group members quit the group anyway, saying they were uncomfortable with how money questions were handled. Then there was the incident with Shawna Forde, a former Minuteman supporter who had appeared alongside group leaders (who then distanced themselves from her), now sitting in prison awaiting trial on a double murder for a home invasion she was accused of pulling last summer. With two of her cohorts, Forde is accused of rushing a home in Arivaca, trying to steal a suspected drug trafficker's money. They are accused of murdering Raul Flores, his nine-year-old daughter, Brisenia, and an attempted murder on Brisenia's mother. Sometime before that, Simcox had said he would run against Sen. John McCain; then pulled out of the race and is now backing J.D. Hayworth. Carmen Mercer, one of Simcox's supporters, tells SonoranNews.com: "This March we return to the border locked, loaded and ready to stop each and every individual we encounter along the frontier that is now more dangerous than the frontier of Afghanistan.” Well, it's spring time on the border; the weather is gorgeous, wildflowers blooming, soft breezes and cool desert air. Get ready for a fresh influx of reporters, talking heads, RVS, American flags, lawn chairs and talk. Lots of talk. I hope, for their sake, the Minuteman volunteers don't encounter a group of Sinaloan desperados. We will see. And Chris, you'll remember what happened the last time I ran into your Minuteman volunteers when they tried to stop me demanding identification. It wasn't pleasant for them then and it's going to be even less pleasant this time. Keep them boys alert, Chris. The border's changed.

THE BORDER REPORT

This story’s a few months old but I like it because it shows nicely to what extent the U.S. simply doesn’t invest in punishing high-end drug traffickers. The United States has entered into a plea agreement with one of Mexico’s most famed drug lords that ensures the man will not spend more than a few years behind bars despite having moved more than an average of 15 tons of marijuana across the border every year of his ... illustrious ... career. Miguel Angel Caro Quintero, who headed the Sonora Cartel in the 1980s, is accused of moving nearly fifteen tons of marijuana and cocaine into the U.S. for years. His brother, Rafael Caro Quintero, is serving a 40-year sentence in Mexico for the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena. Miguel was captured in Sinaloa in late 2001 and served eight years in that country before he was extradited to Colorado last winter to stand trial on indictments filed by the U.S. The Feds worked a suspect named Harold Allen Hughes, a Cessna pilot and smuggler dating back to 1967, recorded deals of upwards of 80-ton loads of pot moving through Sonora. Hughes, who worked with El Azul Juan Esparragoza as far back as 1973, was also in the growing business, raising some 30 tons of pot every year in Sonora, Sinaloa, and Chihuahua. Court documents show that he went to work with Miguel Caro Quintero after Rafael's arrest, moving loads into Tucson and Phoenix then driving half-ton loads up to Colorado. Cash was coming back at a rate of $300K a week in those heady days of the late eighties and nineties before a source fingered Hughes and Caro Quintero in 2001. The evidence seems a bit shady; according to court documents, the snitch "identified a photograph of Miguel Angel Caro-Quintero as the person that Hughes obtained his marijuana from ..." between 1985 and 1989. For his part, Caro Quintero has always proclaimed his innocence, saying that the Feds were simply retributing the murder of Kiki Camarena and that he's simply a cattlerancher. Nevertheless, last October, he pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking in Colorado and Arizona. Here's where it gets a little sketchy. Sentencing won't be held until February but I'm told that he will serve his five-year Arizona sentence concurrently with that of Colorado where he faces 10-20. However, I'm told that he's really facing the lower end of the larger sentence minus the eight years he's already served in Mexico. Bottom line: maximum seven years for a drug lord career that spanned nearly two decades. Possibly two years if he gets the ten and the court accepts the eight years he's served in Mexico. That's what a great lawyer will do for you. I don't even know what to think about the federal prosecutors ...

THE BORDER REPORT

With the finding of six bodies in a dirt lot yesterday afternoon, about twenty people have now been murdered along the Arizona-Sonora border since last Tuesday. The bodies were found in Nogales, Sonora, and were presumed to have been there some three to five days, a timeline that matches up nicely with the start of this current conflict. Still don't know who the man was that was killed in Agua Prieta last week; nobody's saying so you know it's good (regionally interesting, probably not national). But a source in the area says Mexican Feds were in a meeting with the gringos on the Arizona side when they got the call and went running back into Mexico to deal with this. The latest conflict appears to be a group of Nuevo Zetas moving against the powerhouses of the Arizona border (and it ain't DHS). Meanwhile, the Mexican Army exercised an extreme case of ineptitude when a soldier was shot in a crossfire in Agua Prieta last Thursday. Seems the Army had surrounded a stash house when two traffickers in a Pontiac Grand Am raced out. A desmadre ensued when the soldiers unloaded on the car, hitting the car but also shooting at each other. The narcos got away. I thought training was a big part of the Merida money ... pero bueno. In light of this latest ordeal, Sonora Gov. Guillermo Padrés is asking Mexico City for one thousand more federales to be brought up into Sonora (mas ratas pal pozo ... ) And, up north of me, one of Arturo Beltrán Leyva's people was indicted on cocaine trafficking and money laundering charges in Phoenix. Misael Beltrán Cital and seven other people were indicted on the charges after the State Department issued him a visa to come to the U.S. Total setup and he fell for it, oops. We'll see what happens next.