[Wswss] Safety Alert

[Marty Woll]

I just saw the following from an FBI open-source report.  It suggests caution by rovers and portable ops in the mountains of western Arizona.

73,

Marty N6VI


Cartels using Ariz. mountaintops to spy on cops. Federal drug agents say Mexican cartel surveillance teams have set up observation posts on most of the mountain-tops in the Arizona west desert area, from the Mexican border to Phoenix more than 100 miles north. Most of that land sits inside the Tohono O'odham Indian reservation, which is the size of Connecticut, but is sparsely populated by 20,000 residents. Officials sad in recent years they have seen a dramatic rise in drug smuggling cases on Tohona O'odham land, attributing it to law enforcement crackdowns in others areas of the border, which have forced Mexican smugglers to increase activities in the remote tribal lands that border Mexico. In the last few years, officials have seized hundreds of tons of marijuana there, along with a smattering of other illicit drugs, and have seen a rise in related crimes. Supporting the smugglers who cross the barren desert on foot or in vehicles, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents said, is a small army of Mexican spotters hired by the cartels to climb the mountains, watch out for police and help coordinate illegal drug shipments.