On tighter US border with Mexico, violence rises

US law officers and illegal border-crossers are under increased attack, as beefed-up patrols cut into smugglers' illicit trade.

from the April 24, 2007 edition

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But as the border becomes less porous, smugglers are herded into narrower, more desolate crossing points, making their travel more dangerous and costly.

"We knew that as we began sealing the border that the violence would increase," says Gustavo Soto, supervisory border patrol agent in Tucson. "It's simply a frustration level. These smuggling organizations and narcotics groups have too much to give up. And as the risk goes up, so does the price."

Moreover, say officials in the US, the Mexican side of the border has experienced a huge spike in crime – usually over control of smuggling routes – that has sometimes spilled into the US.

Directly across from the Arizona border town of Douglas, for instance, in Agua Prieta, Mexico, gunmen kidnapped a Mexican reporter in front of the police station on April 16. So far, there has been neither a ransom demand nor information on the reporter. But investigators say the attack is similar to the assassination of Agua Prieta Police Chief Ramon Tacho Verdugo in February. Chief Tacho was the 12th police chief killed along that border in what investigators describe as drug-related violence.

"The violence is a tool [the drug smugglers] use to maintain discipline – through fear – within their own ranks, as a way to retaliate against rival organizations, and as a way to scare good-hearted citizens away from cooperating with law enforcement," says Steve Robertson, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington who spent 17 years working the Southwest border.

In the US, illegal immigrants are the easiest crime targets but not the only ones. Border patrol agents, too, have been victims of smugglers' wrath.

"We've really put a damper on their ability to do business," says Al Bosco, spokesman for the Yuma Sector Border Patrol. "They've become so frustrated that they lash out at our agents."

There have been 48 assaults on border patrol agents in the Yuma sector during the first three months of 2007, compared with 42 during the same period of 2006. Of those, 39 were rock-throwing incidents, six were physical assaults, two were vehicle assaults, and one was a shooting. None of the agents has been killed, but some have been seriously injured.

•Next, what is being done to counteract rising border violence.

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