Mexican cartels recruiting American smugglers to wreak havoc on a once tranquil border region

The following is an excerpt from The Corruption Chronicles.

Illegal immigration and serious crimes such as human and drug smuggling that typically accompany it are devastating a once tranquil border region in southeastern Arizona where longtime residents and local officials say federal authorities have negligently handed off some immigration duties to overwhelmed local police.

Judicial Watch visited the area, Cochise County, nearly six years ago and reported a dire situation back then that multiple sources confirm has dramatically worsened. At the time human and drug traffickers regularly evaded a meager force of Border Patrol agents in the mountainous region about 75 miles southeast of Tucson in the picturesque Sonoran Desert surrounded by the scenic Huachuca Mountains.

The situation has deteriorated significantly under the Biden administration, residents and law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch, especially with the addition of the new “American smuggler,” U.S. citizens, predominantly young adults from Phoenix and Tucson, recruited by Mexican cartels through social media.

“Smuggling networks have now incorporated American citizens to smuggle persons from the border to cities throughout the U.S.,” said a Cochise County law enforcement source, who added that the new trend has created deadly consequences in the border communities where the American recruits often travel at dangerously high speeds through local roads and highways. “Most are inexperienced young drivers,” according to a community leader who has lived in the area for decades. In one recent incident an elderly woman was struck and killed by a speeding vehicle on her way to dinner with family. “The youth behind the wheel was from the greater Phoenix area and was participating in a smuggling effort while evading law enforcement,” according to an area official, who also said police and residents are hyper vigilant of the deadly pursuits, which are becoming quite common and often exceed speeds of 100 miles per hour in residential neighborhoods.

Another related threat to this charming community has been created by the increasing number of packages containing deadly drugs littered throughout the area by mules, often in residential neighborhoods.

Federal officials say China supplies Mexican drug cartels with precursor chemicals to produce methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant that speeds up the body’s system, and fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, and residents along the border are extremely apprehensive about handling the backpacks and other items left behind by illegal immigrants because they fear coming into contact with the deadly drugs.

One longtime Cochise County resident told Judicial Watch that he found a leather pouch in his driveway recently and reported it to the local sheriff, who sent an officer to secure the pouch. “The deputy informed me that this area was extremely active at night and additional coverage by local, county and state law enforcement were patrolling the state highways to interdict,” said the resident who does not want to be identified to protect himself and his family.

The Biden administration’s disastrous open border policies are also contributing greatly to the spread of communicable diseases, Arizona health officials confirm. A former Arizona Department of Health veteran based in Tucson offered safehouses in the town of Altar, Sonora Mexico as an example.

The small compounds resemble military barracks where transients are packed in to await shuttles north to the U.S.-Mexico border. Makeshift bunks are lined up to sleep and minimal bathroom facilities with dismal sanitation, enabling the rapid spread of diseases between one infected individual and the next migrant that occupies the same space the following day. “Tuberculosis is a prime example,” the retired Arizona health officials said. “Several strains exist and when hosts, in this case migrants, for diseases such as TB are immersed in crowded living conditions, the spread of these strains is accelerated.”

These are just some of the serious issues created by the illegal immigration crisis in this small, once peaceful corner of the border region where residents and multi generations of ranchers used to enjoy an idyllic life.

Link to full article here.