More rivals reported to be stealing immigrants as patrols increase.......

      Another article out of the local newspaper February 10, 2007.

      "Tucson, Arizona - Gunmen who opened fire on a truck carrying illegal immigrants and their smugglers, killing three people and wounding two, were probably rival smugglers, an investigator said Friday.
      The gunmen chased down the truck Thursday northwest of Tucson and opened fire, but were never able to stop it and eventually abandoned the chase, said Pima County sheriff's Lt. Michael O'Connor, commander of the violent crimes unit."
      "It really appears to us it was a situation where it was a rival smuggling operation trying to take these people," Lt. O'Connor said."
      Okay, does that mean we must now tolerate illegal gunmen shooting it out in wild west fashion on our soil all over again?  Are we now going to be forced to adjust to everyone carrying side arms and rifles?  Are we slowly turning into another third world nation or is it just my over active imagination?

                        The article continues.

      "Investigators are still trying to determine the motive. But feuding among smuggling organizations is not uncommon, sometimes involving smugglers taking customers from rival groups to be held for ransom.
      With a concentration of Border Patrol agents and National Guard members making it harder to cross the border in Arizona, smugglers are resorting to stealing the customers and employees of their rivals and holding them for ransom by their families, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement."
       Just what we need in this country, more gangs and gang related activities trying to impose their individual fears upon all of us. This whole situation is getting beyond "out of control". It is getting where there are too many very dangerous gangs running ramped and free throughout this country and there do not seem to be any controls in place anymore.
     "Lt. O'Connor said a Mr. Beltran Camargo had threatened to harm family members of the Guatemalan and Honduran migrants he was transporting (can we say illegal immigrants) if they identified him as a smuggler. But some of the customers did so anyway, authorities said."
      I like the choice of words the newspaper and those being quoted use. They do find creaative way to dance around illegal immigrants, don't they? "Customers", they are referred to as (migrant) customers?
      "After the shootings, the truck continued down a dirt road and at some point veered out of control into the desert. The wounded and uninjured occupants got out and more than a dozen people ran or got rides out of the area - either from other smugglers or from passers-by, Lt. O'Connor said."
      What can I say? This whole situation is really getting sick! What did these dozen or so people do? Did they stick out their thumbs and begin hitch-hiking? If the police were right there at the scene, why didn't they at least try to stop this from happening? I just do not understand sometimes.

 

(K)