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Wed May 10, 2006 7:37pm ET170

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Phoenix authorities on Wednesday announced the arrest of 62 people it accused of being human smugglers and said they detained 528 illegal immigrants after a two-month operation.

Police, customs and immigration enforcement agents also seized 62 vehicles, $4.8 million in cash, 11 weapons, 5 kg of cocaine and $1.8 million in property in the crackdown along the Arizona border -- the biggest U.S. entry point for illegal immigrants coming across the Mexican border.

"We are using every means in our capacity to make sure we locate and then take down those leaders that are making human smuggling possible across the border," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said at a news conference.

"I believe if we are going to cut off this poison, we are going to do it by making it unprofitable to be engaged in human suffering," he said.

Authorities said they had invaded several drop houses used by human smugglers, known as "coyote groups." Those arrested ranged from members of small-time organizations to operators of criminal syndicates who make money bringing mostly Mexican immigrants across the desert.

Arizona, which recorded more than half the 1.2 million arrests made last fiscal year in the United States along the frontier, last year passed a state law that makes human smuggling a state crime.

The Arizona operation comes amid a divisive debate in the United States over how to secure its borders and deal with the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants marched in U.S. cities and boycotted school and work on May 1 to press demands for reforms that would give them a path to citizenship.

"Until the federal government does its job and secures our borders, this is the best way the city of Phoenix can make an impact on illegal immigration -- from the top down by cutting off the head of the monster," said Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.

Republican legislators in Arizona have proposed one of the toughest state anti-immigrant packages including the deployment of National Guard troops to the border with Mexico and the use of radar to track anyone trying to sneak across.