Posted on 12/09/2002 9:54:14 AM PST by HiJinx
CORONADO NATIONAL MEMORIAL -- Although vehicle drive-throughs carrying loads of drugs from Mexico into the United States is not a major problem at this National Park Service facility, a proposed barrier will make it more difficult to smuggle illicit material.
There are about two miles of memorial property that allow for vehicles to easily cross the border, said Thane Weigand, chief ranger at the facility
Some drug smugglers have cleverly loosened parts of the barbed wire fences that currently mark the border. The smugglers drive vehicles through and then put the wire back up, Weigand said.
The U.S. Department of Interior is looking at putting up stronger vehicle barriers at the memorial and the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Western Arizona.
Approximately 200,000 illegal immigrants and 750,000 pounds of drugs entered the United States at Organ Pipe, and 55,000 illegal immigrants and 120,000 pounds of drugs at the Coronado National Memorial, according to a letter from the superintendent of the Organ Pipe facility in 2001.
"The magnitude of the health and safety risks at Organ Pipe was vividly demonstrated by the tragic death of one of the NPS's (National Park Service's) most promising young law enforcement rangers this past August, who was ambushed while pursuing drug smugglers who crossed the border and abandoned their vehicle in the monument," wrote William E. Wellman, the monument's superintendent.
Bonnie Eggle, mother of the agent, Kristopher William Eggle, said this is not the first time there has been a proposal to build vehicle barriers at Organ Pipe.
"Talk is cheap," she said during a telephone interview Friday from her Michigan home.
In the past, the barrier was taken out of the budget, she said.
Hopefully it will be built this time, but Bonnie Eggle said it still makes her sad that it took the death of her son to push a barrier when if one had been in place her son may still be alive.
She said she is glad to hear that the barrier proposal has been expanded to include the Coronado National Memorial.
Weigand said drug smugglers are becoming more brazen.
The smugglers have scouts who watch him and other rangers at the memorial and pass on information where they are so drug smugglers can enter the United States at other places, he said.
Although drug smuggling is not heavy, yet -- and Weigand emphasized the word yet -- putting a vehicle barrier along nearly two miles of border is a proactive measure. The memorial borders Mexico for slightly more than three miles. Slightly more than a mile is mountainous and does not have good access for vehicles.
Weigand, a ranger, or National Park Service law enforcement officer, for 18 years and chief ranger at the memorial for 18 months, said most of the illegal traffic crossing the border are people.
Sometimes the drug smugglers will use border crossers as decoys. While law enforcement is busy with illegal immigrants, the smugglers will move their drugs through an unprotected part of the border, he said.
The proposal for the memorial and monument is to put up steel bars, alternating in height from 4 to 5 feet, with a cross bar at the 3-foot level.
The bars will be about 4 feet apart and anchored in concrete to make them difficult to remove, according to the proposal. No dollar figure is available for the more than 25 miles of combined barrier to be constructed for the memorial and monument.
Ken McMullen, acting superintendent at the memorial, said the U.S. Border Patrol also may want to put surveillance cameras and sensors at the memorial beside the barriers.
Parts of the memorial have a long history of smuggling activities, which is why a portion is called Smuggler Pass, McMullen said.
During the years of alcohol prohibition in the United States, banned drinking material was smuggled into the United States through such places as Smuggler Pass in the area before it became the Coronado National Memorial, he said.
Weigand said locating drug smugglers is difficult because not only do they use vehicles, they have mules, drug smugglers, who cross the border and put their loads at locations in the United States for others to pick up.
On Friday, Weigand and his rangers were informed that some mules were heading back to Mexico after dropping their loads.
The group of six or seven could not be found, he said.
Individuals have until Dec. 17 to make comments about the vehicle barrier proposal at both the memorial and monument.
Comments can be sent to William Wellman, Superintendent Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, 10 Organ Pipe Drive, Ajo AZ 85321. Comments also can be forwarded by e-mail to bill_wellman@nps.gov.
Although I'm not shocked that the Mexican press presents the Mexican point-of-view.
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