Southern Border Sheriffs Outgunned by Drug Cartels

(CNSNews.Com) - Drug cartels operating along the southwestern U.S. border are a "country unto themselves" with intelligence capabilities, weaponry and communications equipment that far exceed the resources made available to local law enforcement in the U.S., according to sheriffs who have organized a new border security coalition.

Sheriff Leo Samaniego of El Paso County, Texas, told Cybercast News Service that the same infrastructure that facilitates illegal immigration from Mexico creates enormous opportunities for heavily armed criminal enterprises like drug cartels and terrorists.

"A lot of people make their living transporting illegal aliens," Samaniego said. "The 'coyotes' [as human smugglers are called] get them across the border but there is a network of individuals involved in transporting them once they get to safe houses."

The same methods of concealment and transportation are being exploited by the drug cartels, Samaniego explained.

Though immigration violations technically fall within the purview of the federal government, Samaniego says the local officials must often bear the full force of the crimes that attach themselves to illicit border crossings.

Those crimes include drug smuggling, human trafficking, trespassing, destruction of property, vehicle theft and even kidnappings and murders.

Samaniego believes many Mexican drug cartel members actually live in the U.S. and function as part of one of the largest criminal enterprises in the world.

"Federal, state and local officers all along the southwest border of the United States are outgunned and outmanned," Samaniego told the House International Relations Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation in July.

Sheriff's deputies are advised to "back off," Samaniego told Cybercast News Service, when they see well armed individuals from cartels and other criminal organizations.

Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez of Zapata County, Texas, has been in touch with a number of informants familiar with the drug cartel operations.

"They tell me that what we have are water guns when compared with what the drug cartels are using," Gonzalez said.

The weaponry used by the cartels includes machine guns, grenades and grenade launchers, Gonzalez said, adding that the cartels also have expertise in the use of explosives.

Rick Glancey, who serves as the executive director of the Texas Sheriffs Border Coalition, says local law enforcement is hampered by financial and regulatory provisos that do not apply to cartels, which operate with seemingly unlimited resources.

"They have the ability to purchase military equipment where all we can do is purchase local law enforcement equipment," he said. "We'll never be able to see an even playing field. We just hope to be smarter."

Although law enforcement continues to face daunting challenges, Glancey and Samaniego both said some of the newer initiatives organized through the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition hold enormous promise.

"Operation Linebacker" was launched in September 2005 and holds great promise in the eyes of local law enforcement. Its central objective is to maximize resources on the state and local level. Since the operation went into effect, sheriffs have observed a significant reduction in both illegal immigration and various criminal activities.

Samaniego said that, within just a few weeks after the operation began, some problem areas for illegal immigration in the Del Rio region experienced as much as a 75-percent drop in the crime rate.

"We are proving that if you provide enough resources on the border, federal, state, county as well as municipal, we can make a difference," Samaniego said. "We can shut it down, if we have the manpower."

In response to the success of those border enforcement efforts, Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry expanded the concept, launching "Operation Rio Grande." The move assigns Texas Rangers, state troopers and members of the Civil Air Patrol to assist Operation Linebacker.

Perry also announced in June that the state would spend $20 million to continue Operation Rio Grande. The money has paid for body armor, night vision goggles, technology upgrades and overtime expenses.

Sheriffs have received another $10 million in federal funding, primarily from criminal justice grants, for Operation Linebacker since the beginning of the year.

The money pays for additional personnel and equipment. The influx of federal money to the sheriffs is also financing "Citizen Police Academies" to train local volunteers and increase community involvement in border protection efforts.

Members of the sheriff's coalition agree that insufficient communications equipment is a major challenge that must be addressed.

Glancey would like to see some form of satellite communications availability. He's also concerned about the technical capacity cartels have to listen to the conversations of local law enforcers.

"There are some areas from Brownsville to El Paso where we would have to seriously consider the encryption of our signal because of the ability of the cartels and others to tap into our radio frequency," Glancey said.

Using encryption would have another benefit: It would allow sheriffs' deputies to communicate more easily with federal agencies, which already encrypt their radio transmissions.

The border sheriffs' coalition insists that the positive results from Operation Linebacker prove that the right mix of ingenuity and willpower can secure the border and frustrate the drug cartels.

"These operations have proven to be very successful for the border," Gonzalez said. "Texas is the 'can-do state.' We are showing the federal government how it should be done."

Glancey warns, however, that too many of the most important decisions about immigration policy and border enforcement are made by members of Congress from non-border regions. Those officials, Glancey explained, don't always understand the consequences of their decisions.

Kathy Walt, spokeswoman for Perry, told Cybercast News Service that the governor's office will try to devote any excess unspent state funds to Operation Linebacker before the end of the year.

Perry sees enormous potential in the on-going border security efforts modeled after Operation Linebacker. Walt said that she expects additional border security initiatives to be launched in the future.

"We know that by conducting these heavy concentrations of law enforcement," Walt said, "that the mere presence of law enforcement along the border has shutdown a lot of criminal activity."

Just imagine if the feds got involved in doing their job of controlling the border. Or at least helping state and local governments to their jobs with some federal funds.

But noooo, they're too busy attaching earmarks to legislation to fund border security.

Maybe Congress ought to pass a law or several on illegal immigration. That would fix it. They could pass a law about enforcing the law. Or just do away with the border altogether and make all drugs legal.

I heard a few days ago that the Border Patrol have asked for overtime pay for years but have been denied. Until the National Guard was assigned to help the Border Patrol. Since the National Guard are "unarmed" the Border Patrol are having to work overtime (with overtime pay) to "baby sit" the Guard to protect them.

This is just the kind of thing that happens when the government is in control. No common sense or logic at all.

What is sad about that is that the posse may be better armed than the people deputizing them...

Therefore it would confirm the fact that the people conducting the illegal operations in regard to the transportation and commercialization of drugs, and the human traffickig crowd are equally, and quite possibly better armed...

So until the government get serious and stop spending and throwing money at the problem, and un-fetter and instruct our Law Enforcement, with an "armed" military force on the border patrolling and engaging, not just observing, the enemy...

This will never go away...

A couple of FACTS not presented in the article.

1. ANY law enforcement agency that claims to be "out-gunned" is playing political games at the expense of the truth.
L.E. has ready access to all the firepower they want, dirt cheap, or even free!
They are EXEMPT from the laws restricting purchase of machine guns, grenade launchers, tanks, and artillery!
They can ask for surplus items from the Fed., who will GIVE them MG's.
They can buy all they want from U.S. "Class 2" dealers, cheap!

2. Of course, having the fire power and having the ABILTY to use it can be two VERY different things.
What would be the point in having the means to defend our border from criminals and terrorist if the L.E. has to worry about our own Gov. Org. giving the criminals amnesty in order to prosecute OUR L.E.?
This is a current Fed. Gov. Org. insane activity, L.E. who shot at a drug courier who left 8 TONS of dope behind is facing 20 years in prison!

3. Much the same is true of communications equipment, if their Governor ask the feds for it, they will have it.

"They have the ability to purchase military equipment where all we can do is purchase local law enforcement equipment," he said. "We'll never be able to see an even playing field. We just hope to be smarter."

Or, as commonly, the narcotrafficantes *borrow* the equipment they feel they need from their cooperating deditos in the Mexican military. If they don't need it, it's returned, and the cooperating army officer gets a nice bonus for his trouble- and as insurance for further obedience. If there's a problem and the material is used, consumed or captured, then it *was stolen....*

1. ANY law enforcement agency that claims to be "out-gunned" is playing political games at the expense of the truth. L.E. has ready access to all the firepower they want, dirt cheap, or even free!

I've lived around the border in Texas and Arizona on and off for three decades and my old boss runs a newspaper in the Big Bend country. I pay attention to such things, but I've yet to see a sheriff's department in the area with jeep-mounted recoiless rifles.

And if you don't think that they're available to the banditos, you've not been paying attention.

As I stated, if they do not have them it is only because they do not really want them, or have not made any sincere effort to get them.
But complaining about the lack is good for political sympathy.

Even our local ski lodge has a couple of recoilless rifles, they use them for avalanche control.

L.E. is exempt from the 922.(o) prohibition on acquiring or manufacturing new NFA items.

But as I also noted, having them does no real good if they are afraid to USE them.

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