July 6, 2007

ICE INITIATIVES TO COMBAT SOUTHWEST BORDER VIOLENCE

As the agency with the broadest law enforcement authority in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has established aggressive intelligence and investigative operations at the nation’s ports of entry and in the nation’s interior.

The southern border of the United States is a region particularly vulnerable to cross-border criminal enterprises and the violence associated with them. In recent years, ICE has seen an unprecedented surge in brutality there by drug and human smuggling and trafficking organizations. The following are a few of the initiatives that ICE has launched to combat the criminal organizations behind this activity.

Border Enforcement and Security Task Forces

Drug-related violence along the Texas-Mexico border, particularly in the Nuevo Laredo/Laredo area, has surged in recent years. This violence is caused by intense competition between the remnants of the Gulf Cartel and the Federation.

In response, ICE first partnered with other federal, state, and local law enforcement officials in Laredo, Texas, to create a multi-agency initiative called Operation Black Jack in July 2005. Operation Black Jack has subsequently evolved into the DHS’s Border Enforcement and Security Task Force (BEST).

BEST incorporates personnel from ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and key state and local law enforcement agencies. The BEST concept incorporates personnel from existing intelligence groups — involved in both collection and analysis – to help identify and disseminate information relating to violent smuggling organizations. BEST has been a highly successful tool to combat violence on the Southwest Border.

This coordinated approach has led to significant enforcement results. From July 2005 to June 2007, BEST has been responsible for 430 criminal arrests, 827 administrative arrests, and the seizure of approximately $8.3 million, 1,462 pounds of cocaine, 66,265 pounds of marijuana, 113 pounds of methamphetamine, 129 pounds of heroin, 294 weapons, 12 grenades, 2 real properties and 155 vehicles.

BEST Weapons Seizures

Arizona BEST is investigating two individuals who attempted to smuggle nine AK-47 assault rifles to Mexico. The two men left the United States and arrived in Mexico. A search of the vehicle by Mexican customs officials revealed smuggled weapons. The two subjects fled on foot back to the U.S. and were apprehended upon re-entry.  Both men face weapons export charges.

In March 2007, Rio Grande Valley BEST agents arrested two individuals attempting to illegally export 11,540 rounds of assorted ammunition from the United States into Mexico. BEST agents subsequently conducted a search of a residence and seized $15,591. 

In March 2007, pursuant to an ongoing weapons smuggling operation, Arizona BEST criminally arrested 17 subjects for state and federal weapons violations and seized 54 firearms.  The arrests included 10 Mexican nationals illegally present in the United States and 7 U.S. citizens.

In July 2006, Laredo BEST agents, working in conjunction with Mexico’s federal police, located and arrested an individual wanted in Mexico for his role in a May 2006 incident in which he threw live grenades into a Monterrey nightclub resulting in the death of four people.  The man was deported to Mexico and turned over to Mexican authorities. 

In January 2006, Laredo BEST arrested one individual who had in his possession at a residence in Laredo, Texas, two AK-47 assault rifles, one Uzi and one Mac 10, various ammunition, a silencer and 182 kilograms of marijuana.

In January 2006, Laredo BEST members arrested an individual pursuant to a federal arrest warrant.  A search of his residence resulted in the seizure of one pound of methamphetamine, one pound of cocaine, five AK-47 assault rifles, six AK-47 fully automatic parts kits, one fully automatic AR-15, 7 hunting rifles, a handgun, 3 silencers and 2,600 rounds of ammunition.  Additional federal charges were filed.

In January 2006, BEST agents executed a federal search warrant at a public storage unit in Laredo, Texas. During the search, agents and officers recovered 5 grenade shells, nine pipes with end caps, 26 grenade triggers, 31 grenade spoons, 40 grenade pins, 300 primers, 19 black powder casings, 1280 rounds of ammunition and one silencer. In a related seizure, BEST members also conducted a federal search warrant at a Laredo residence that yielded 10 live grenades, 81 grenade casings, one Uzi machine gun, one bullet proof vest, a drill press, and numerous gun parts and accessories. 

Human Smuggling/Trafficking Investigations

The violence experienced on the Southwest Border is not only caused by drug trafficking organizations, but also human smuggling and human trafficking rings. These international organizations, which earn hundreds of millions of dollars annually through smuggling and exploitation of illegal immigrants, are becoming increasingly ruthless. In case after case, ICE agents have seen aliens being smuggled in squalid conditions without food, water or sufficient air. Moreover, they are frequently subjected to violence, forced labor and sexual exploitation upon arrival at their U.S. destination.

Since the creation of ICE in March 2003, ICE investigations into human smuggling and trafficking organizations had resulted in more than 7,100 criminal arrests, 4,700 criminal indictments, and 4,100 criminal convictions. The amount of assets seized by ICE from human smugglers and human trafficking organizations increased from almost none before 2003 to nearly $37 million in 2006. In fiscal year 2006, ICE initiated 299 human trafficking investigations that resulted in 184 arrests.

In one 2006 case, ICE agents in El Paso, Texas, arrested the leaders of two large-scale criminal organizations on charges of smuggling more than 600 aliens across the Southwest Border. The organizations allegedly generated more than $1.6 million in smuggling fees. Depending on their nationality, aliens were charged between $1,500 and $6,000 apiece. During the investigation, ICE agents encountered large numbers of smuggled aliens crammed into trailers for non-stop trips with no food and limited water.

In another ICE case, two individuals were convicted on Feb. 2, 2006, in Tucson, Ariz., on 15 counts each of smuggling aliens. Both face potential life sentences as they caused death and bodily injury during their smuggling venture. The smugglers were transporting aliens in a stolen truck on an Arizona Interstate in October 2004 when, during a high-speed pursuit, they caused an accident that involved 10 vehicles. The accident resulted in the deaths of five people, including an elderly couple. In addition, 38 people were injured, including 21 people with level one trauma.

Southwest Border Tunnel Activity

In some cases, increased actions by law enforcement agencies along the border are driving smuggling organizations underground. ICE and DEA agents executed a search warrant in Nogales, Ariz., on June 29, 2007, at a home used to conceal the U.S. entrance to a recently constructed tunnel that stretched nearly 100 yards underground to a residence across the border in Mexico. The shaft of the narrow passage, reinforced in places with wood supports and sandbags, measured 3 feet by 3 feet at the Nogales entrance. The tunnel, which investigators believe had yet to be used, was equipped with lighting, but had no ventilation system. As ICE and DEA agents searched the Nogales home, officers from the Sonoran State Police entered the residence across the border in Nogales, Sonora, where they located the tunnel’s other entrance and arrested five suspects. 

The Nogales passageway is one of the most extensive smuggling tunnels uncovered along the Southwest Border since the discovery of a massive tunnel south of San Diego in January 2006. In that case, ICE worked with its Mexican counterparts, as well as with the DEA and CBP in the United States, to discover a sophisticated tunnel beneath the border between San Diego, Calif., and Tijuana, Mexico. Mexican authorities later executed a search warrant at a location in Mexico and seized 4,351 pounds of marijuana.

Since 9/11, federal authorities have discovered more than 40 cross-border tunnels along the U.S.-Mexico border in California and Arizona.

Targeting the Finances of Cross-Border Criminal Enterprises

ICE is uniquely equipped to target the financial lifeblood that sustains violent criminal activities along the Southwest Border, including human smuggling and trafficking and the illegal movement of drugs and weapons. While ICE is a relatively new law enforcement agency, its predecessor agencies bring to bear more than 30 years of expertise in the investigation of financial crimes. Building on this expertise, ICE has achieved great success in choking off the illicit finances that fuel criminal operations through the aggressive investigation of bulk cash smuggling, money laundering, and other financial crimes.

For example, the smuggling of bulk currency, especially across the Southwest Border, has become one of the preferred methods of moving illicit proceeds out of the United States. In 2001, Congress criminalized the act of bulk cash smuggling under the Patriot Act, which makes it a crime to conceal and smuggle more than $10,000 in currency and monetary instruments into or out of the United States with the intent to evade U.S. currency-reporting requirements. ICE agents have used this authority to make more than 330 arrests. In addition, ICE and CBP have cumulatively seized more than $160 million of the funds involved in these bulk cash smuggling violations.

ICE’s efforts against bulk cash smuggling do not end at U.S. borders. In August 2005, ICE partnered with CBP and the State Department to initiate a training program with Mexican authorities on ways to combat cash smuggling. As a result of this joint financial initiative, Mexican authorities have seized more than $18 million in cash and $5 million in negotiable instruments that were involved in violations of Mexican currency-reporting requirements.

Aside from bulk cash smuggling, ICE works to investigate other methods that criminals use to move their illicit funds out of the United States, such as the use of unlicensed money services businesses. These businesses operate outside the traditional banking system and have been long recognized by law enforcement as vulnerable to abuse. The enhancements enacted in 18 U.S.C. Section 1960 under the Patriot Act, provide law enforcement with increased authority to investigate unlicensed money remitters. Since the passage of the Patriot Act, ICE investigations of unlicensed money services businesses have resulted in more than 171 arrests and the seizure of $25 million.

This international collaboration has already resulted in impressive arrests and contraband seizures, on both sides of the border. BEST has been directly responsible for deporting individuals wanted for murder and horrific acts of violence, on both sides of the border. The Laredo BEST team, alone, has been responsible for 74 criminal arrests, which include seven individuals wanted for murders in Laredo, and three in Mexico.

Additionally, the teams have recommended revoking or not issuing visas to individuals suspected or confirmed to be involved in large-scale criminal activity.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE comprises four integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities. For more information, visit www.ICE.gov. To report suspicious activity, call 1-866-347-2423.