Officers find possible home-invasion crew in Phoenix
by JJ Hensley - Oct. 30, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
.

A traffic stop led state and local officials to a small arsenal of weapons in a west Phoenix trailer park Friday afternoon.

Based on the type of armored vests discovered in the home, along with a T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a local law-enforcement agency's special-operations unit, investigators speculate that they could have stumbled upon a home-invasion crew.

Eight men were in custody and being processed at a Department of Public Safety station in central Phoenix following the arrests. Investigators have not determined how many of the men will face state charges. DPS detectives in the gang- and immigration-enforcement unit known as IIMPACT believe all the suspects entered the country from Mexico without proper documentation.


The investigation began to unfold just before noon Friday when a Phoenix police officer made a traffic stop near 67th Avenue and Van Buren Street.

The officer began questioning the driver after noticing hidden compartments in the vehicle. The investigation led police to a trailer park in the 6400 block of West Van Buren Street.

Officers contacted two men outside a trailer home and called out another five from inside the brown single-wide trailer, all of whom cooperated with the investigation without resistance, said DPS Capt. Fred Zumbo, who is assigned to the IIMPACT task force.

When officers went inside the trailer, they found ammunition, a pair of rifles, a shotgun, handguns and two armored vests outfitted with ceramic plates, which can be used to stop shots fired from rifles.

Although the trailer contained telltale signs of a home-invasion crew, Zumbo hesitated to directly link the men to the drug cartels that have plagued Mexico with violence.

Instead, he compared the group to independent contractors.

"They're workers. I liken them to terrorist cells," Zumbo said. "Certainly, they are doing work for the cartels."



Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoe ... z13r69zyo0