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Recovered vehicle numbers up: Border Patrol
BY JONATHAN ATHENS, Sun Staff Writer
Aug 19, 2005



The number of vehicles used to smuggle illegal aliens and recovered by the U.S. Border Patrol in the Yuma sector has quadrupled since 2001, the Border Patrol reported on Thursday.

The reason those numbers are reaching new highs is because commercial alien smuggling in the Yuma sector is on the rise and that is a result of increased enforcement in the Tucson sector, said Michael Gramley, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Yuma sector.

Gramley said the Border Patrol has recovered a total of 1,088 vehicles here since October 2004, compared to 253 for all of 2001.

With another month to go in the fiscal year, the number of vehicles used for smuggling they recover this year could be higher, Gramley said.

The number of recovered vehicles used for smuggling illegal aliens across from Mexico into the Yuma sector peaked in 2000 at 1,086, Gramley said.

Border Patrol agents here recovered 956 such vehicles in all of 2004, compared to 745 in 2003 and 307 in 2002, Gramley said.

Gramley said none of those vehicles, including ones recovered thus far this year, are stolen. Gramley said they were purchased through legitimate channels in Arizona and in California, but they were purchased by smugglers who typically do not and did not register those vehicles in order to disassociate themselves with those vehicles.

The vehicles will either be sold at an auction or destroyed, depending on the estimated value of the vehicle, he said.

If it costs more to store the vehicle and process it for auction, the government usually destroys the vehicle, he said.

Four-wheel drive vehicles and sport utility vehicles are the vehicles of choice among smugglers because those vehicles can traverse the rugged desert terrain and they can hold more illegal aliens, Gramley said.

In one recent instance, Border Patrols apprehended 27 illegal aliens in a single pickup, he said.

On the average, depending on the size of the vehicle, Border Patrol agents will find 10 to 20 illegal immigrants inside a vehicle used for smuggling, he said.