Thread: Unraveling 'plot' to kill Arpaio cost $500,000

Unraveling 'plot' to kill Arpaio cost $500,000
The Arizona Republic

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 Minuteman 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 composed 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.

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 illegal 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.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/65143.php

This story is within this article posted earlier today. Please refer to the link to post further comments:
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... arry+black