Thread: Three immigrants killed by gunmen near U.S.-Mexico border

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/ ... -Slain.php

Three immigrants killed by gunmen near U.S.-Mexico border

The Associated Press
Thursday, February 8, 2007
TUCSON, Arizona
Gunmen stopped a pickup truck full of illegal immigrants, shot several and took the rest captive Thursday in an attack that left at least three men dead and two people wounded.

The ambush occurred along a known smuggling corridor near the U.S.-Mexico border, Pima County sheriff's officials said.

Four or five immigrants had not been found by midday Thursday.

Investigators did not immediately know a motive, but gangs of bandits are known to roam border areas preying on illegal immigrants as they cross into the country. Feuding and kidnapping among smuggling organizations also is not uncommon, sometimes involving demands for ransoms from the immigrants' families.

The immigrants were heading north when four men armed with assault rifles in another vehicle forced the truck to stop, said Rick Kastigar, the Pima County sheriff's criminal investigations chief. During a confrontation, one man was killed, another was shot in the hand — losing several fingers — and a woman was shot in the neck, Kastigar said. Two bodies were later found a few miles north in the truck.

Sheriff's Sgt. James Ogden said the two wounded immigrants were taken to a hospital with "very, very serious injuries."

Two more men who were not injured were taken into custody as witnesses and were questioned by investigators, Ogden said.

Kastigar said the confrontation followed another incident about 12 hours earlier more than 70 miles (112 kilometers) south, in which 18 illegal immigrants were robbed at gunpoint by four heavily armed men wearing ski masks.

I still think we need one hell of a big fence.

Dixie

Originally Posted by Dixie

I still think we need one hell of a big fence.

Dixie

If they keep knocking each other off, the fence might be a moot issue

Those darned bandits. WILD WEST RETURNS

Maybe congress will wake up and secure the border now that illegals are being killed. Congress doesn't care about Americans killed but maybe they will if illegals are killed.

Mexico goes into a "hissy" fit when one of their scumbag smugglers is killed or injured, demanding investigations. Meanwhile, Americans are being slaughtered on the roadways, murdered and raped, yet nobody seems to notice, in the media, the estimated 45,000 deaths caused by illegals since 9/11. One illegal alien gets whacked by a flashlight and the Feds want to bury the BP agent. It's obvious that the Mexico corruption has spread to our government. We are sinking to the lowest common denominator.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/168596

Border News
Entrants killings' details emerge
4 bandits likely fired powerful rifles at truckload of Central Americans

By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.10.2007

The detailed picture that emerged Friday about events that led to bandits shooting and killing three illegal entrants northwest of Tucson provides a glimpse into the violent underbelly of human trafficking in Arizona.

The events unfolded early Thursday morning near the Silver Bell Mine Road area, taking the lives of two men and one woman. Authorities have not yet released the nationality, names or ages of the victims.

Between 4:30 and 5 a.m., a Dodge pickup stolen in Phoenix was taking a group of illegal entrants north across the Tohono O'odham Reservation, said a Pima County Sheriff's Department press release.

The illegal entrants were from Guatemala and Honduras, said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is also investigating the shooting.

A group of bandits tried to stop the truck and opened fire when the driver refused to stop. Authorities estimated the gunfire came from four bandits shooting high-powered rifles. Bullets entered the front and side of the truck, the sheriff's press release says.

The gunfire likely came from assault weapons or AK-47s, judging by the casings found, Mack said.

After the shooting began, the truck continued speeding along Silver Bell Mine Road, then went out of control and ran off the dirt road. The occupants ran into the desert.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department has accounted for seven people in the pickup, but there may have been at least 10 more involved, based on interviews with the four survivors.

At least four people ran off, dragging a man who had been shot in the head and leaving behind a dead woman in the center front seat and a dead man in the bed of the truck, said Sheriff's Department Bureau Chief Richard Kastigar.

A 21-year-old Mexican man who had been shot in the hand went in another direction, he said. On Friday that man, Pedro Luis Beltran Camargo of Sinaloa, Mexico, admitted to ICE agents that he was the guide, or coyote, in the truck and was arrested.

The other three (and the man they were dragging) made it back to Silver Bell Mine Road and were picked up by another vehicle already carrying illegal entrants. That vehicle went about eight to 10 miles northwest before the driver realized the seriousness of his passengers' injuries, Kastigar said.

The three illegal entrants still alive and the man who had been shot in the head were put out of the vehicle, which went on, the report says. The man died on the side of the road, according to the report. A local rancher found the three survivors and called 911. He encountered:

Sebastiana Quixtan Gomez, a woman from Santo Tomas, Suchitepéquez, Guatemala, who had been shot in the chest and neck. She was airlifted to a local hospital and was in stable condition Friday.

Olinda Arelina Mateo Gomez, a 15-year-old girl from San Marcos, Guatemala, who was not injured.

Selvin Eristo Boj Chavajay, a 28-year-old man from Suchitepéquez, Guatemala, who was not injured.

Though investigators have yet to identify the nationality of the victims, Oscar Padilla, the Guatemalan consular general in Phoenix, said he fears they could be from Guatemala.

Padilla was in Tucson on Friday, visiting with the three identified Guatemalan survivors.

He met with Mateo and Boj at the federal court building where they were in the custody of U.S. marshals and with Quixtan at a local hospital. They were all shaken up but were happy to see him, he said.

"Every case is different and has its own tragedy," said Padilla in Spanish. He has dealt with many incidents involving Guatemalan illegal entrants in his year and three months in office in Phoenix. "But the violent manner that they were attacked, that is what scares me."

Quixtan has a husband and a 3-year-old son back in Guatemala, Padilla said. "It's a second opportunity to live for her."

The Mexican Consulate in Tucson had been notified of just one Mexican involved in the incident — Beltran, who was arrested, said consulate spokesman Alejandro Ramos Cardoso. They're following the case closely to see if any other Mexicans were injured, killed or involved in some way, he said.

"It's alarming, the level of violence that is happening now," he said in Spanish.

Both ICE and the Pima County Sheriff's Department are investigating the shootings.

It appears that a group of bandits, perhaps trying to steal the load of illegal entrants, carried out the attack, said Alonzo Peña, agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona.

"It's concerning, because it appears to be a premeditated attack on a group of aliens," Peña said.

The ICE agency is looking into the possibility that Thursday's violent attack is connected to a similar one that occurred in Eloy on Jan. 28, when bandits attacked a vehicle carrying 12 illegal entrants, killing one and injuring another.

"They may be unrelated or not connected, but what is somewhat unusual is that they happened so close together," Peña said.

Pima County sheriff's investigators are working with Pinal County sheriff's investigators to see if there is a link, said Kastigar, the Pima sheriff's bureau chief. But so far there is nothing to substantiate that theory, he said.

Kastigar and Peña agreed that the event demonstrated the measures bandits will take to steal loads of humans or drugs.

"They look at an alien as a commodity, and it's a profitable business for them to be in," Peña said.

ICE and Pima County will share leads. "The ultimate goal is to prosecute everyone involved," Peña said.

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6075342
Feb 12, 2007
Deputies searching again for clues in immigrant shootings

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Pima County sheriff's deputies on horseback and all-terrain vehicles scoured the desert northwest of Tucson on Monday for a third time to look for clues in the fatal shooting of three illegal immigrants.


About 25 deputies and investigators were working south for several miles from where a pickup truck that carried possibly 20 immigrants was abandoned Thursday, said Rick Kastigar, criminal investigations chief for the sheriff's office.

Gunmen chasing the truck Thursday killed two men and a girl and wounded two other people. But the truck traveled several miles before it was abandoned. A dozen or more people apparently got away, officials said.

Searches were also conducted Thursday and Friday.

Kastigar said deputies searched for tire tracks, footprints, shell casings, "anything of value," but added that he was not optimistic. "It's analogous to looking for a needle in a haystack," he said.

The two wounded people and two other witnesses didn't see the gunmen, Kastigar said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Tucson said officials have spoken to one of those wounded, Pedro Luis Beltran Camargo, but could not disclose what he said.

Spokesman Alejandro Ramos said Beltran, who lost several fingers when he was shot in a hand, has been discharged from a hospital and was in custody.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said other survivors of the attack had identified Beltran as the driver of the truck. Spokeswoman Lauren Mack said he would be charged with immigrant smuggling.

Ramos said the Mexican consulate was cooperating in the investigation and was trying to determine the identities of the deceased.