Thread: AZ: Pinal residents caught in the border security crossfire

Pinal residents caught in the border security crossfire
Posted: Oct 15, 2010 11:46 PM CDT Updated: Oct 16, 2010 5:42 PM CDT

Video Report: 3:21
Reporter: Joel Waldman

PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. (KGUN9 -TV) - The residents of Pinal County are among the only people who don't seem to be too surprised about a leaked Department of Homeland Security report from May detailing how 15 Mexican assassins were going to be sent into the southern Arizona desert to murder drug bandits.

And, these same residents tell us they're equally unmoved by the federal department's disavowal of its original intelligence report.

"Just walking up here, you said you moved out here from Chandler? why?" 9 On Your Side reporter Joel Waldman asked of resident Wally Catton. "To get away from the violence," simply responded Catton.

But, Catton never thought he'd have his breath taken away dodging bullets, two separate times, just 2000 feet from his new home near Arizona City.

"When we got here you cautioned us what to do if we get shot because you have been shot at?" Waldman asked.

"Just face the car that way because when they shoot at us, we want them to hit a vehicle, to hit the firewall," Catton explained. He said he sees human and drug smugglers almost daily.

Catton pointed to a mound of garbage as proof.

"There's Night Time Cold Relief?" Waldman asked, picking up a discarded package.

"Yeah, the babies start crying and they want to keep them quiet," Catton responded.

The trash was part of a huge mound of garbage that Catton showed Waldman. Illegal dumping was probably to blame for much of it. But there was also plenty of evidence of the kind of items used in human smuggling, including a empty box of noodles discarded alongside a strainer, a baby seat, diapers, empty water jugs, different sorts of juices, undergarments, and so on.

Surveying the garbage, news of a leaked memo warning that a Mexican drug cartel was planning to send 15 assassins here to murder drug bandits left Catton unphased. Catton pointedly patted the pistol he keeps at his side.

Nor was Catton surprised to learn that after word of the memo got out and Sheriff Paul Babeu held it up as the latest example of out of the feds not doing a good enough job of protecting Arizonans, the feds disavowed the memo.

"What do you think is going on between the Pinal County Sheriff and DHS?" Waldman asked.

"I think the ex-governor forgot where she came from," Catton resopnded, referring to former governor Janet Napolitano, who now runs the Department of Homeland Security. "She was asking the government for the same thing the sheriff is asking for now."

Leaving residents like Wally Catton caught in both the verbal and actual crossfire.

http://www.kgun9.com/Global/story.asp?S=13334721

Related Posts:
Homeland Security Disputes 'Drug Assassin' Memo
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1128318.html

Mexican Assassins Headed to Arizona, U.S. Warned
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-215471.html

Mexican drug cartel war spills onto American soil
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-215383.html

Mexican Turf War Moves into Pinal County AZ.
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-215315.html

Memo warned of cartels targeting rivals with assassins AZ.
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-215323.html