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by John HillStand With ArizonaFox Phoenix TV (KSAZ FOX 10) on Thursday showed a ridiculous propaganda piece purporting to show "the Arizona border" and how "safe" it is, as they follow Americans from around the nation on a "tour" of the border. Here's how they describe the piece: Make your own decision about life on the border. What is life on the border really like? Hop on the Border Bus Tour, and do your own fact finding about what it means to have a secure border. And in the video, the tour leader, Bob Feinman, tells us on the bus...

Federal authorities have discovered another cross-border tunnel in rental house in downtown Nogales. Agents served a search warrant Tuesday at a house on West International Street and discovered the exit underneath a wooden front porch, said Kevin Kelly, assistant special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations in Nogales. U.S. Border Patrol agents and Mexican federal police crawled into the tunnel and tracked 70 feet into Mexico where it began in the underground drainage system that runs east to west below the city, Kelly said. The tunnel was three feet wide by two feet tall...

Drug smugglers are endlessly creative when it comes to inventing ways to move marijuana, cocaine and other contraband from Mexico into the United States. In the latest innovation uncovered by law enforcement, smugglers in the border town of Nogales, Arizona were bringing drugs into the U.S. for the cost of a quarter. The parking meters on International Street, which hugs the border fence in Nogales, cost 25 cents. Smugglers in Mexico tunneled under the fence and under the metered parking spaces, and then carefully cut neat rectangles out of the pavement. Their confederates on the U.S. side would park false-bottomed...

Authorities in Nogales, Ariz., this week shut down a 90-foot-long smuggling tunnel spanning the U.S.-Mexican border and arrested two men and a boy. "Anytime you see electricity, ventilation and shoring, it's pretty sophisticated," said Vincent Picard, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Agents were conducting surveillance along the border Tuesday when they spotted a truck with Arizona license plates and noticed suspicious activity around it, according to an ICE press release. Agents followed the truck as it left, pulled it over and discovered 2,621 pounds of marijuana inside. ... The tunnel is about three feet wide and three...

NOGALES, AZ (KOLD) - Nogales Mayor Octavio Garcia Von Borstel, 29, and his father were arrested Tuesday on fraud, theft and money laundering charges. Agents with the FBI arrested Garcia Von Borstel in his office a the Nogales City Hall Tuesday morning. Agents also searched his home, business and the rest of the city hall office. Arizona's Attorney General Terry Goddard announced the arrests in a press release. "These charges are serious violations of the law. Because some charges involve the official actions of an elected official, they violate the public trust," Goddard said. "Both the mayor and his father...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Mexican Man Found Guilty of Assault on Two Border Patrol Agents and Illegal Re-Entry After Deportation TUCSON—Jaime Martinez-Garcia, 26, of Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, was found guilty of two counts of assault on a federal officer and one count of illegal re-entry after deportation by a federal jury in Tucson on August 31, 2010. The case was tried before United States District Court Judge David C. Bury. The defendant remains in custody pending sentencing. “In Arizona, Border Patrol Agents risk their lives on a daily basis patrolling in remote desert canyons and other harsh...

A Mexican drug cartel has issued an ominous death threat against police officers in Nogales, AZ who seize their illicit product as reported by Sean Alfano for the Daily News: Police Chief Jeffrey Kirkham said his officers received threats a couple weeks ago after off-duty police busted a pot smuggling ring. * * * Just which cartel made the threat remains unclear. Violent warnings toward American police are not new, but the Nogales incident marked the first time U.S. officials confirmed a threat. The Sinaloa cartel controls the smuggling routes along the Arizona-Sonora border, and in early 2009 its boss...

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - A Mexican drug cartel is threatening Nogales police officers, telling them to avoid off-duty drug busts or deal with the consequences of being assaulted by armed smugglers or targeted by snipers from across the border. Nogales Police Chief Jeff Kirkham said the threats are serious, credible and a sign that drug cartels have become a much more dangerous enemy. "Some direct threats came against our officers that if they're off duty, they were not to interdict any type of narcotics coming across the border or they would be targeted," Kirkham said. Kirkham tells 9 On Your Side...

Note: The following text SNIPPET is a quote: U.S. Consulate General Nogales issued the following Warden Message on May 11: This Warden Message is issued to encourage U.S. citizens to use extreme caution when traveling on Mexican Federal Highway 15 between Hermosillo and Nogales. A U.S. citizen disappeared early on May 3rd departing from his residence in Benjamin Hill, Sonora. His vehicle was found later that day in Santa Ana, and his remains were recovered May 8. He had been murdered. Based on further investigation, a general increased threat to travelers on the highway between Hermosillo and Nogales continues to...

Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department on Thursday extended a travel warning that had been issued for Mexico because of the region's high level of drug and gang violence. The State Department warning also notes that the authorized departure of family members of U.S. government personnel from U.S. consulates in the northern Mexico border cities of Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros has been extended. The State Department issued similar warnings in March and April. The Mexican government said in April that more than 22,700 people have been killed in drug-related violence since December 2006, when...

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "MEXICO CITY – The deputy police chief in the northern Mexican border city of Nogales was killed along with his bodyguard, Sonora state police said Friday. Adalberto Padilla and bodyguard Ivan Sepulveda were shot Thursday night while traveling in a police vehicle. The assailants were described as men inside an SUV who opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles, the weapon of choice for Mexico’s drug cartels. A 16-year-old bystander was wounded during the attack in the city just across the border from Nogales, Arizona." SNIPPET: "In other drug-related violence, a local police chief and his brother...

NOGALES — A sinkhole found two days before Christmas revealed a tunnel beneath International Street just west of the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry. The discovery of the sinkhole prompted city of Nogales officials to contact the Border Patrol Station to investigate. Meantime, city crews placed a steel plate over the hole as a temporary fix to facilitate street traffic during the pending holiday. Agents discovered the street had caved in over a portion of a “sophisticated tunnel,” still under construction with two-by-four wood shoring and plywood floors, walls and ceilings, according to a Border Patrol news release. It measured...

Another tunnel apparently dug by drug smugglers has been found beneath the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Ariz. Scioli said it’s the 63rd smuggling tunnel found beneath the border in the Nogales area since October 1995, and the 16th since last October.

Two tunnels were discovered in Nogales over the weekend by Nogales police officers, making a four-day total of three tunnels found in the border city. Elsewhere, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped 17 people from entering the United States using fraudulent Canadian citizenship cards at the Douglas port of entry. Officers patrolling an area near downtown Nogales discovered a tunnel east of the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry about 6 p.m. Friday, said Mario Escalante, U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokes-man. Its opening was about 8 feet north of the border fence and hidden by weeds and a piece...

U.S. Border Patrol agents discovered another tunnel in Nogales on Thursday afternoon. At 1:15 p.m. Thursday, bike agents patrolling in downtown Nogales spotted a piece of foam sitting about one foot north of the border fence, west of the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry, said Rob Daniels, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. Under the foam, which was partially covered by dirt, agents found the exit of a tunnel. Agents sent a remote-controlled robot into the tunnel and determined that it went 15 feet east from the exit point into the Grand Avenue tunnel, which runs north and south, and into...

Mexican officials say a concrete barrier constructed by the U.S. Border Patrol in a storm-water tunnel beneath Nogales appears to be on Mexican soil and was the main cause of serious flooding July 12 in Nogales, Sonora. The flooding caused about $8 million in damage in Nogales, Sonora, the officials say. The 5-foot-high wall on the floor of the tunnel in front of a gate was put in without notifying the International Boundary and Water Commission, said Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the U.S. section of the commission. The commission requests that any agency doing work on the border that could...

The U.S. Border Patrol has brought in 200 additional agents and is offering flights home to Mexico City for illegal entrants selected for prosecution as part of a new effort. The multifaceted strategy called "Operation Arizona Denial" has the mantra of "breaking the smuggling cycle." The idea is to concentrate resources in targeted areas to reduce illegal-entrant smuggling and violence in the Tucson Sector, the busiest along the Southwest border for illegal entries and marijuana smuggling. The additional agents have come from other Border Patrol sectors and will be here temporarily, said Mike Scioli, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. Their...

A convicted murderer who was deported earlier this year after serving more than two decades in prison was arrested Tuesday after trying to come back into the country. Juan Crisantos-Ramos, 46, a Mexican citizen, was taken in to custody at the Dennis DeConcini port of entry in Nogales after he attempted to enter the United States using an immigration document that belonged to someone else, according to a news release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The incident occurred late Tuesday when an officer was screening people and began asking routine questions of a passenger in a car, the release...

NOGALES, Ariz. — The Mexican woman behind the wheel of the white Dodge Intrepid looks like any one of the thousands of legal border crossers who come through the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales. It's Friday afternoon and her 12-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son are in the back seat dressed in their school uniforms with backpacks at their feet. The 30-year-old seemed to be a mom on her way to shop in Nogales, Ariz., after picking up her kids at school. But, hidden behind the back seat, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found four packages of marijuana wrapped...

NOGALES, Sonora — Gabino Ibarra leans against a white stucco wall outside a church in the late-afternoon shadows, prying a few remaining cactus splinters from his calloused hands. It's mid-April and the 37-year-old father of four from Veracruz, Mexico, is staying at a migrant shelter, resting from three weeks of failed attempts to cross illegally into the United States through the Altar Desert near Sasabe. The grueling desert treks have left Ibarra 17 pounds lighter and less enthusiastic about his northern quest than when he left Veracruz, more than a thousand miles away in southeastern Mexico. But, he planned to...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Four Mexican men were arrested and charged with homicide Thursday in the beating death of a man who allegedly tried to rob them at gunpoint as they attempted to cross into the United States. The unidentified man who was killed appeared to specialize in robbing migrants, the government news agency Notimex quoted police as saying. Armed thieves often hide in the desert near the U.S. border and prey on would-be undocumented crossers, who sometimes carry money for the journey. The four men from Nogales and Chiapas states were attempting to cross a desert pass west of...

Tucson Region Hastert: 'Zero' entry by migrants Group of mostly GOP lawmakers tours border By Josh Brodesky ARIZONA DAILY STAR Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.22.2006 advertisement NOGALES, Ariz. — Saying there needed to be "zero penetration" into the United States by illegal entrants, House Speaker Dennis Hastert got a look Friday at the challenges faced by those trying to secure the southern border. The Illinois Republican and a handful of other lawmakers, including Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe, from Southern Arizona, are visiting the border with Mexico. On Friday, the group took a daylong tour in Arizona, including an afternoon...

Several Border Patrol agents were fired upon Wednesday evening in Nogales while responding to a call about a vehicle that was entering the country without going through a port of entry, an official said Thursday. Around 7 p.m. Border Patrol agents responded to a report of a silver Mercedes sport utility vehicle driving through the desert in Nogales, said Jesus Rodriguez, a spokesman for the agency's Tucson Sector. As the agents neared the SUV, they were fired upon, he said. One patrol vehicle took rounds to the windshield and the body. The agent in that vehicle fired back as did...

NOGALES, Mexico — One by one, men and women crawled on their knees and bellies across the hot desert sand about 100 yards from where rumbling tractor-trailer rigs crossed from Mexico into Arizona. In temperatures near 100 degrees, they looked like they were on a military reconnaissance mission, but their tattered clothing said these weren't soldiers. They were trying to make their way from southern Mexico to the United States. President Bush and Congress have vowed to seal America's porous border with thousands of National Guard troops, miles of fences, surveillance cameras and aerial drones. But in the Mariposa Canyon,...

A rollover accident caused major traffic problems Wednesday morning on I-19 at Pima Mine Road. The Arizona Department of Public Safety says that 16 people were inside a truck when it rolled. Several of them suffered serious injuries. Twelve people were taken to the hospital by ambulance, plus 2 more by helicopter, and two fled from the scene. DPS Sgt. Paul Castellano says, "The people travelling in the vehicle appeared to be illegal immigrants." This is the second major accident involving illegal immigrant in the last two weeks.

Nobody paid much attention when a large white van with Arizona numberplates pulled into a parking space in the shade of the 15ft-high sheet-metal wall that separates Mexico from the United States in the divided border town of Nogales. A few yards away US border guards monitored the steady flow of pedestrians through a heavily fortified gate in the wall. There was no reason to be suspicious of a van legally parked on a metered space directly beneath a pylon of American surveillance cameras. Yet inside the van Mexican gangsters were preparing one of the most brazen smuggling ploys ever...

Well, this is not what I expected, but at National Guard Drill this weekend, I expected to receive orders to deploy to New Orleans, LA in support of Operation Katrina relief (yes, Arkansas National Guard is still there), or to Iraq/Afghanistan since I didn't go with the 142nd FA this month. But instead, I received orders to active duty for many months to Fort Huachuca, Arizona.I was needing advice on the SE area of Arizona, specifically, Sierra Vista, Tuscon, Bigsby, etc.I spent all day with ATF getting my Class III firearms ready to go to be stored at the company...

By LEO W. BANKS Leo W. Banks The Morales family, from left: Alex, Susie and Heriberto. Leo W. Banks Before he approaches a pasture, Sonny Clarke scans the area with binoculars for signs of danger. Leo W. Banks A cup hangs from the Morales water tank, an invitation for passers-by to drink. Leo W. Banks Morales wrote her letter to Alejandro Mata's mom from her kitchen table. Leo W. Banks "When you have to wear a bulletproof vest because of gang snipers on public land in your own country, it's pretty bad," says Jake Brown. Susie Clarke Morales lives in...

A 20-year-old California man trying to enter the United States from Mexico with his family was arrested on a murder warrant. Uriel Diaz of Pomona, Calif., was unable to provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers with identification as he tried to enter through the Nogales Port of Entry on Saturday.

FBI agents posing as cocaine traffickers in Arizona caught 16 current and former U.S. soldiers and law enforcement personnel who took payoffs to help move the drugs through checkpoints, Justice Department officials said Thursday. Those charged include a former Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector, a former Army sergeant, a former federal prison guard, current and former members of the Arizona Air National Guard and the state corrections department, and a Nogales, Ariz., police officer, officials said. All 16 have agreed to plead guilty to being part of a bribery and extortion conspiracy, the result of the nearly 4 1/2-year FBI...

Unarmed man was in group transporting pot Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies are continuing to investigate an incident in which a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed an unarmed drug backpacker north of the border. The incident happened about 4 a.m. Saturday in Pesqueira Canyon, about 10 miles north of the border, near Old Ruby and West Frontage roads, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said Monday. A dozen illegal entrants with about 300 pounds of marijuana in six packs were being tracked by Border Patrol agents. When the agents tried to apprehend the men, they scattered and, for...

Search of Nogales home yields anti-tank explosive, grenades NOGALES, Sonora - U.S. and Mexican officials are investigating a heavy weapons cache discovered in this border town that police believe was headed south to arm drug cartels. In a late Wednesday search of a Nogales home, police found an anti-tank warhead, six hand grenades and more than 1,200 rounds of ammunition, Nogales Police Chief Ramses Arce Fierro said Friday. Officers also found an empty missile tube for a larger sized shoulder-fired weapon, he said. A task force of FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents were working with...

The arrest this month of two Tucson men on charges of smuggling marijuana inside coffins isn't the first time traffickers have used strange methods to try to get their drug loads into and through the United States - nor will it be the last. Officials have had little to say about their investigation into the recent coffin case. Robert Dean Harper and Timothy Gavin Hynd face charges in connection with the smuggling of 610 pounds of marijuana through Oklahoma, where they were stopped by the state Highway Patrol on Dec. 10. Both men, who told investigators they were working for...

Press Release - Customs and Border ProtectionNogales Agents Come Under Fire1135 Pounds of Marijuana SeizedTucson, AZ -- On November 11, 2004, agents assigned to the Nogales Border Patrol Station disrupted drug smugglers as they attempt to drive two drug filled trucks across the international border.At approximately 12:00 p.m., a Border Patrol Agent observed two trucks drive north through the desert across the border near the Buena Vista Ranch, east of Nogales. As the two trucks traveled north away from the border, a third truck joined them. The third truck was being utilized as a scout (lookout) by the drug smugglers.Agents...

Mexican and U.S. officials are investigating the discovery of two smuggling tunnels found late Wednesday in Nogales, Sonora. Local police were searching an area on the western end of the city after a series of reports of suspicious activity when they tried to chase people into storm drains. When they didn't find anybody in the drain, police assumed they had used a tunnel. Further investigation in the area yielded two tunnel openings and the Mexican police contacted authorities in the United States, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said Friday. Authorities couldn't determine where or if the tunnels exited on...

<p>CLACKAMAS — Rape charges have been filed against a 25-year-old man who returned to the United States after being deported in September.</p> <p>Jesus Del Carmen Gomez Rodriguez was arrested in Portland late Wednesday. He is suspected in a home-invasion rape Nov. 8 at an apartment complex in Clackamas .</p>