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Immigrant smugglers ripping off rivals
By Jacques Billeaud, The Associated Press
Article Launched: 02/14/2007 01:00:00 AM PST


PHOENIX - In the past two weeks, federal authorities have investigated four cases of what appear to have been immigrant smugglers trying to hold up rival human traffickers so they can kidnap their customers and hold them for ransom.
While it's not yet known whether Arizona is seeing an increase in such rip-offs overall, the recent rash of cases does underscore the rising violence in the illegal trade and illustrates the dangerous shortcut that smugglers take to try to make quick cash in the United States.

The latest example of a suspected smuggler rip-off came last week in Pima County, where local authorities believe armed smugglers may have tried to steal illegal immigrants from rival traffickers north of Tucson. Three people were killed in the incident.

Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point on the U.S.-Mexico border, leads all other southern border states in smuggler-on-smuggler rip-offs. During the past four years, a smaller number of cases also have surfaced in Houston, officials said.

In this scheme, armed smugglers will usually pull over a rival's smuggling vehicle, forcibly take the illegal immigrants inside, bring them to a stash house and pressure friends and relatives of border-crossers


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to scrape together enough money for the ransom.
With ransoms typically ranging from $1,200 to $2,500 per person, a vehicle packed with 20 or so immigrants can prove lucrative for smugglers.

Officials say smugglers are drawn to the scheme because they don't have to pay employees to recruit would-be border-crossers in Mexico and guides to lead immigrants through the Arizona desert.

"They lose a lot of overhead costs," said Angel Rascon, who supervises smuggling investigations in Arizona for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "The entire fees that are collected by the rip-off crews are for their own gain."

Smugglers have stolen clients from rivals just feet away from the Arizona-Mexico border. The rip-offs also are taking place in smuggling stash houses in metropolitan Phoenix, a hub for transporting illegal immigrants to jobs across the country.

Lt. Anthony Vasquez, who is in charge of the Phoenix Police Department's robbery unit, said smugglers believe the fear of deportation keeps immigrants from reporting the kidnappings.

"For the most part, these are victims that are not going to be coming forward to try to prosecute them - and (the smugglers) know that," Vasquez said.




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