Pubdate: Tue, 01 May 2007 Source: Austin American-Statesman (TX) Copyright: 2007 Austin American-Statesman Contact: http://www.statesman.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/32 Author: Olga R. Rodriguez, Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Mexico (Mexico) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) DRUG LORDS TRAFFIC IN PEOPLE Mexican Immigrants Are Used to Divert Border Forces From Narcotics Routes SASABE, Sonora - Mexican drug lords are taking over the business of smuggling immigrants into the United States, using them as human decoys to divert authorities from billions of dollars in cocaine shipments across the same border. U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that drug traffickers, in response to a U.S. border crackdown, have seized control of the routes they once shared with human smugglers and are transforming themselves into more diversified crime syndicates. The drug gangs get protection money from the immigrants and then effectively use them to clear the trail for the flow of drugs. Undocumented immigrants are used "to maneuver where they want us or don't want us to be," said Alonzo Pena, chief of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona. Gustavo Soto, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol in Tucson, Ariz., said smugglers are carrying drugs along paths once used primarily by immigrants. New fences and National Guard troops have helped seal the usual drug routes, and vehicle barriers are forcing traffickers to send more drugs north on the backs of cartel foot soldiers, he said. The advent of drug-trafficking extortionists along the border might also be responsible for much of the drop in illegal immigration that U.S. officials have attributed to better enforcement, Mexican officials and analysts say. The new order became clear in December when heavily armed men stopped 12 vans packed with 200 emigrants on a desolate desert road just south of the border. Local officials say they ordered everyone out, doused the vehicles with gasoline and set them ablaze. Nobody was hurt, but the charred carcasses of the vehicles remain an unmistakable message to the thousands traveling north on the top people-smuggling route. Since then, members of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel have consolidated control of most of the main routes into Arizona, using teams of gunmen to set up the haggard border-crossers as decoys for U.S. security, U.S. and Mexican officials said. Just south of the Arizona border, near the key way station of Sasabe, armed men at a gas station stop vans full of people heading north, charging them $90 each and dictating when and where they can cross, immigrants and local officials told the AP. At times, the emigrants are pooled and sent across in large numbers at one time of the day, clearing the route for a drug shipment a short time later. Smugglers also direct people away from successful drug routes in hopes of minimizing the personnel U.S. authorities assign to the area. "The drug traffickers won't allow migrants to enter because the area will 'heat up' and the U.S. Border Patrol will be on alert," one Mexican official said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. "They want control so they can 'cool off' the area and go in with their cargo." While the Sinaloa cartel controls the Arizona border, its main rival, the Gulf cartel, has become involved in the people-smuggling business along the Texas border, according to Noe Ramirez, a Mexican deputy attorney general. Federal police have seen the same trend. "Drug smugglers are shifting toward people- and arms-smuggling," said Patricio Patino, a top Mexican security official. People-smuggling is only part of the cartels' new efforts to diversify. The Mexican border is providing a less reliable profit stream for drug smugglers, analysts and law enforcement officials say. The U.S. seized 20 percent more cocaine and 28 percent more marijuana along the border in the past six months, compared with the same period a year earlier. The cartels now collect protection money from all manner of businesses, much like traditional U.S. mafia organizations. In many parts of Mexico, the cartels dictate everything from who shines shoes on street corners to who is chosen as police chief. President Felipe Calderon vowed two weeks ago to intensify his crackdown on the cartels in response to violence. Headless or tortured bodies turn up in public places nearly every day. The border has become especially bloody, and some of the violence appears to be connected to people-smuggling. Mexican officials say the violence is scaring emigrants. In the 10 months since the arrival of National Guard troops, 271,195 people have been detained along the Arizona border, an 18 percent drop from the period a year ago, according to the Border Patrol. "Now migrants are facing two sets of controls: the U.S. Border Patrol and criminals," a Mexican immigration official said on condition of anonymity.