Thread: Five bodies found in desert; shootout wounds one

Published: 07.23.2007
Five bodies found in desert; shootout wounds one
DAVID L. TEIBEL
Tucson Citizen
Five bodies were found in southern Arizona's desert during the weekend, and a suspected marijuana smuggler was shot and wounded in an unrelated incident, authorities said Monday.
In the shooting, a man came across U.S. Border Patrol agents about 20 miles north of the Mexican border and near Interstate 19 about midnight Sunday, said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Antonio Estrada.
Deputies were called in, Estrada said, and the man told investigators that he and 10 other people had crossed into Arizona at Sasabe about three days earlier and that as they walked through the desert Sunday night two armed men wearing dark clothing approached them and, without saying a word, opened fire on the group, hitting the one man twice.
He said he dived for cover and hid while the other people in his group scattered in different directions, Estrada said.
The man said he and the other group members were to meet someone in Amado who would drive them farther into the United States.
However, Estrada said, "We have strong suspicion he (the wounded man) was part of a group that was backpacking marijuana." Estrada did not say if the shooting was part of a drug theft.
The wounded man is a 34-year old from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Estrada said, adding he was in stable condition at a hospital.
By late Monday morning, Estrada said, none of the other group members has been found.
Here are the accounts on the five bodies found during the weekend:
• On Saturday morning, the owner of the Atascosa Ranch, near I-19 and about 13 miles north of the border, found the body of a man suspected to be an illegal immigrant on the ranch's land, Estrada said.
• On Friday at about 7:15 p.m., a border patrol agent patrolling about five miles east of Lukeville in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument found the body of a 43-year-old suspected illegal immigrant. The man was found within a few yards of the Mexican border, said Border Patrol Agent Sean King.
• About noon Saturday a border patrol agent found the skeletal remains of a person about 13 miles east of Arivaca, King said. The agent could not tell the approximate age or even gender of the person.
• And, about noon Sunday a National Guard crew on patrol in a helicopter about 18 miles north of Lukeville spotted two decomposing bodies in the desert, King said. Neither man carried identification, he said.
The five bodies bring to 143 the number of suspected illegal entrants found dead in the desert since Oct. 1, the beginning of the federal fiscal year, according to border patrol and Tucson Citizen records.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/58129.php

It is so corupt there and so dangerous they are even killing each other. This is what is coming here and is here. It is just frightening. I see Illegals everday living all around my home. They don't follow laws. I don't know if it is because they don't think they have to or they know they won't be punished. They look at us like we don't belong in our own home let alone in the United States of America.