Thread: AZ: Supposed plot to kill Arpaio is doubted

Supposed plot to kill Arpaio is doubted

Informant discredited in $500,000 inquiry

Yvonne Wingett and Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 7, 2007 12:00 AM

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spent an estimated $500,000 during the past six months protecting Joe Arpaio from an assassination that supposedly was designed to cause a furor in the United States over illegal immigration.

The convoluted plot, reported to police by a paid informant, purportedly involved members of the Minutemen border group hiring a hit squad from a Mexican drug cartel and using an outspoken immigrant-rights advocate as their intermediary.

Sheriff's officials now acknowledge that virtually none of the information supplied by the source panned out.

According to the informant, Mexican nationals were to be blamed for the killing, which was to be carried out by members of Los Zetas, an enforcement arm of the smuggling organizations comprised mostly of former Mexican police and soldiers.

The informant, claiming to be a translator for cartel leaders, said he witnessed a down payment of $1.5 million for the slaying.

In all, 88 employees have played a role in the investigation since it began in mid-March. The Sheriff's Office racked up about 16,720 hours of work on the case, plus nearly $82,000 in credit-card bills for gas, meals, airfare and motel rooms, including those for Sheriff Arpaio.

Detectives staked out border crossings, hid Arpaio in hotel rooms and chased leads from Connecticut to the Arizona-Mexico border.

People identified by the informant said they had never heard of the plot. The president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was incredulous at the idea his group would have been involved.

The case remains open, but the informant has vanished. No arrests have been made. And there are no new leads.


Danger seemed real


Details of the case, and the expenditures, are described in hundreds of pages of sheriff's files obtained by The Republic under a public-records request.

The conspirators' motive, as explained by the informant, was to create an international event that would outrage Americans about illegal immigration and, as a result, empower the Minutemen.

In retrospect, the script may seem as unlikely as the cast of characters. But in an interview last week, Arpaio said there was good reason to believe the danger was real.

Arpaio has been among Arizona's most outspoken political figures on illegal immigration, setting up sheriff's patrols to track down smugglers and undocumented immigrants. The policies, coupled with a flamboyant personality, have drawn worldwide media coverage.

Chief Larry Black, the sheriff's director of special operations, said the exposure, as well as Arpaio's tough jail system, spawns a stream of assassination threats, lending credence to the snitch's story.

After hearing of the plot in March, sheriff's deputies conducted numerous debriefing sessions with their informant, each adding new twists to an alleged plan that was to be carried out over Easter weekend.

Yet, Black acknowledged, the informer provided only two pieces of intelligence that were provable: He knew how long it takes Arpaio to walk from his downtown Phoenix office to his parking garage, and he knew the sheriff recently had dined at a particular Mexican restaurant in north Scottsdale.

Black said investigators had no choice but to take the threat seriously. The informant's credibility was backed by Yuma police. He passed an initial lie-detector test before failing two questions on a second one. Although his tale was fanciful, it contained real people and dovetailed with some events along the border.

"There was too much here for us to blow off," Black said. "The honest truth was he was believable."

Black said Arpaio bristled at the security measures, which included the cancellation of numerous public appearances and media interviews. Finally, after several weeks, the sheriff returned to his home and his public life.

Asked if any of the investigation verified any of the source's factual leads, Black said, "No, it didn't. And it was killing us."

Black added that he no longer believes an assassination was planned. Instead, he suspects the informant was duped by smugglers who concocted an elaborate ruse to frighten Sheriff Arpaio so he would back off on illegal immigration.


The informer's tale


The informant's story, spelled out in sheriff's records, began with a March 18 meeting in San Luis RÃ*o Colorado, Mexico. It took place at a home referred to as the "green house," 7 miles south of town, surrounded by a 6-foot-high block wall with a metal gate.

According to the informant, two Minutemen leaders met with the administrator for a Mexican narcotics ring. The informant told sheriff's deputies that the Minutemen wanted Arpaio killed to "rally more support for their cause, which is to secure the U.S.-Mexican border and stop illegal immigration."

They purportedly agreed on a price of $3 million in cash, with an advance payment of $1.5 million. The informant said Elias Bermudez, a Phoenix immigrant-rights advocate and talk-radio host, served as an intermediary in the plot. Bermudez said he never heard of the plot until he was contacted by investigators.

On March 20, the informer brought his story to Yuma police, who had worked with him for two years trying to solve the high-profile murder of five members of a family. Yuma police notified the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. Nine days later, the operative resurfaced and met with sheriff's detectives, who asked him to continue his undercover work.

On April 4, he purportedly joined several cartel employees at a Mexican ranch owned by an imprisoned drug chieftain. Near a workshop south of the main house, he told investigators, they sorted through clothing to be worn by assassins. The attire included two sets of camouflage pants with mustard-colored shirts; two cowboy outfits; two dark suits with red ties; and a pair of Jordache shorts with a Hawaiian shirt.

Around 12:30 p.m. on April 6, the informant took a polygraph exam, passing all three questions about the plot. Based on that, detectives ordered round-the-clock protection for Arpaio and started shuttling him to Valley hideouts.

"Once he passed the polygraph, that's when we really ramped up our investigation," Black said. "We move him and his wife. We put him at obscure hotels. Cancel events."

Arpaio spent April 8, Easter Sunday, holed up in a Tempe hotel with Black, under the watch of a three-person security detail. Arpaio dined on a hamburger from Denny's instead of his usual Easter ham.

"I couldn't even go out to get the hamburger. My security people brought it," Arpaio said. "When the informer passes a lie box . . . you've gotta understand there's something there. When I have to move out of my house, from one dumpy hotel room to another, I don't blame my staff. It's their job to protect me."


24-hour surveillance


According to the informer, the Zetas' plan was to kill Arpaio up close with handguns. The Sheriff's Office set up 24-hour surveillance at the Nogales border crossing, and deputies sat along the highway about 10 miles north, watching for the murder squad.

Around 6 a.m. April 20, the informant called detectives and said he had been kicked off the assassination team. A while later, he told detectives that the removal was merely a test and that he had passed.

The informant vanished for most of the next two weeks, popping up May 4 to claim that two members of the Zeta hit squad were staying at a house in Oro Valley. One was identified as "Mario," who claimed to have carried out several murders in the United States. The other was "Sgt. Rose," described as a former U.S. Marine veteran of the Gulf War with a heart tattoo on her ankle. When detectives arrived, the house was empty and for sale.

Sheriff's detectives also tried to track down an e-mail address that was to be used by conspirators for communications. Two investigators flew to Hartford, Conn., where they traced the address to a 17-year-old girl - a prep student who visited San Luis RÃ*o Colorado, Sonora, as part of a school exchange trip in March.

Her parents' first names were the supposed code names for Minutemen plotters. The parents and school officials said the sheet of paper supplied to detectives by the informant consisted of notes that likely were written by an exchange-program teacher in Mexico.

Detectives pored through all of the student's e-mails but found nothing suspicious.

On May 10, the informant told detectives that Sgt. Rose and Mario were holed up in a Tolleson dairy. The farm was placed under round-the-clock stakeout, supported by air surveillance, until a search was conducted the next day. Nothing was found.

After the series of false tips, sheriff's investigators put the informant through another lie-detector test in Yuma. Two of his responses about the murder plot registered as deceptive, but the examiner reversed his findings after conversing with the informant.

"He states that overall the information has been truthful but admits that he has filled in some information that was not given to him specifically," the examiner wrote in a memo. "CI (informant) was adamant that the information regarding the transport of the Zetas was the truth, which was verified with the results of the polygraph."

That was the last time sheriff's detectives heard from the informant. Still, the investigation continued.

On June 21, deputies questioned Elias Bermudez about his supposed role in the plot. Bermudez hosts La Voz del Inmigrante (The Voice of the Immigrant), a Spanish-language talk show.

Bermudez described Arpaio as a political rival who should not be in office because of his policies toward Hispanics. However, he told detectives he felt personally friendly toward the sheriff, condemned the idea of an assassination and offered to help with the investigation.

Bermudez told The Arizona Republic he was shocked when detectives indicated he had been fingered by an informant as a conspirator.


'Pure fabrication'


"It's pure fabrication," Bermudez said. "I told them I had no reason to have the demise of the sheriff. . . . The idea of me and the Minutemen trying to hire someone to do this is outlandish."

Chris Simcox, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, expressed bewilderment when told of the informant's story. "Wow, that's quite a rich plot," he said. "Look, Joe Arpaio is like a hero to us as Minutemen. Why would we want to go against the toughest sheriff in the country?"

To date, no one has been charged with a crime in Maricopa County Sheriff's case No. 0705407, but it remains open.

"We're still investigating," Black said. "We still don't believe it's over. Our informant has dried up. . . . (But) he knew too much. We still continue to believe the threat is out there."


http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... 1007.html#

YA RIGHT. THE MINUTEMEN WANTED TO KILL SHERIFF JOE. I SUPPOSE THEY HAD TO CHECK IT OUT ANYWAY. BUT IT MAKES NO SENSE THAT THEY WOULD WANT TO DO THIS TO SOMEONE WHO'S POLITICAL POSITION IS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME AS THEIR'S.

The Zetas would want to kill him, the Minutemen would not.

W

The Zetas would want to kill him, the Minutemen would not.











Precisely. That's why I do believe that there is something being cooked up and this story was put out to cast doubt on the Minutemen. If something were to happen to Joe, how long would the public continue to support the Minutemen if there was any chance at all that they might be involved........I think that might be the line of thinking.

The informant's information may just have been a commonly used distraction.....enough truth to something to make it credible with untruths added to throw the dogs off the scent, so to speak.

Truth be known, I'll bet the so-called informant is an open borders/illegal immigrant supporter.

Originally Posted by Yvonne Wingett and Dennis Wagner for The Arizona Republic

The convoluted plot, reported to police by a paid informant, purportedly involved members of the Minutemen border group hiring a hit squad from a Mexican drug cartel and using an outspoken immigrant-rights advocate as their intermediary.

Sheriff's officials now acknowledge that virtually none of the information supplied by the source panned out.

According to the informant, Mexican nationals were to be blamed for the killing, which was to be carried out by members of Los Zetas, an enforcement arm of the smuggling organizations comprised mostly of former Mexican police and soldiers.

The informant, claiming to be a translator for cartel leaders, said he witnessed a down payment of $1.5 million for the slaying . . .

People identified by the informant said they had never heard of the plot. The president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was incredulous at the idea his group would have been involved.

--------------- W O W !!! --------------

That's some powerful stuff that guy's been smokin'!!!

added the homepage

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=2620

Call us racists, bigots, xenophoics. Tell us about YOUR rights in OUR country. Kill our people with drunk drivers and criminials who shouldn't be out on the streets. Take away our jobs. Hang our flag upside down under the mexican flag. Crowd our emergency rooms for free healthcare. Send your kids to our schools for a free education. Plan your marches and work walk-outs. Tell us that you have the RIGHT to be here because we took a patch of land from Mexico back in the stone age. Have your polititions interfere in the politics and policies of our country. Yell, scream, stomp your feel, cry and threaten us. The fact is, we don't want ILLEGAL ALIENS in OUR country. We have the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to enforce the laws of OUR country. There are 300 million of us and 30 million of you. Time to pack your bags.

I AGREE WITH WILLIAM AND BY THE WAY, WAY TO GO WILLIAM I SAW YOU ON CNN'S OUT IN THE OPEN AND YOU WERE GREAT! YOU TOLD IT LIKE IT WAS AND DID NOT BITE YOUR TONGUE. YOU CAN TELL WHICH SIDE RICK SANCHEZ BREAS IS BUTTERED ON. HOW CAN ANYONE WHO CALLS THEMSELVES A TRUE AMERICAN CITIZEN SPEAK UP FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN OUR COUNTRY ILLEGALLY? TO ME THAT IS NOT AN AMERICAN AT ALL. THE WORD TRAITOR COMES TO MIND.

Originally Posted by ourcountrynottheirs

Call us racists, bigots, xenophobics. Tell us about YOUR rights in OUR country. Kill our people with drunk drivers and criminals who shouldn't be out on the streets. Take away our jobs. Hang our flag upside down under the mexican flag. Crowd our emergency rooms for free healthcare. Send your kids to our schools for a free education. Plan your marches and work walk-outs. Tell us that you have the RIGHT to be here because we took a patch of land from Mexico back in the stone age. Have your politicians interfere in the politics and policies of our country. Yell, scream, stomp your feel, cry and threaten us. The fact is, we don't want ILLEGAL ALIENS in OUR country. We have the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to enforce the laws of OUR country. There are 300 million of us and 30 million of you. Time to pack your bags.

Good rant, ourcountrynottheirs. That's telling it like it is in few words. Welcome to ALIPAC.