Published: March 03, 2006

U.S. Officials Outline Efforts To Curb Southwest Border Violence

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Border Enforcement and Security Task Force yielding results

Drug-related violence along the Texas-Mexico border surged during 2005, and U.S. efforts to combat this violence have evolved and are yielding significant results, according to U.S. officials.

Analysts say that the increased drug-related violence, particularly in the Nuevo Laredo area along the Texas/Mexico border, is a result of competition between remnants of the Gulf Cartel and the "Federation" which is attempting to take control of this important smuggling corridor.

In response to the violence, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) first partnered with other federal, state and local officials to create a multiagency operation, called Operation Black Jack, in July 2005. This operation has evolved into the Department of Homeland Security's Border Enforcement and Security Task Force, known as BEST.

BEST incorporates personnel from ICE, Customs and Border Protection (BCP), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and key state and local law enforcement agencies.

In a March 1 statement before U.S. Senate subcommittees related to homeland security, immigration, and border security, David Aguilar, chief of the Office of Border Patrol at BCP, explained the approach and focus of BEST in targeting those groups and indiviuals driving border violence.

"BEST will focus on every element of the enforcement process, from interdiction to prosecution and removal, with the goal of eliminating the top leadership and supporting infrastructure that sustains these cross-border organization," he said. "They will leverage federal, state, tribal, local, and intelligence entities to focus resources on identifying and combating emerging or existing threats."

As these efforts continue, a March 1 fact sheet issued by ICE notes that BEST already "has been a highly successful tool to combat violence in the Laredo area."

ICE said that since BEST's inception, task force activity has resulted in 31 arrests and the seizure of 41 assault rifles, 12 handguns and a large quantity of weapons components and ammunition, as well as approximately 318 kilograms of marijuana, 152 kilograms of cocaine, and $1.14 million dollars.

Human Smuggling

As efforts to curb violence on the Southwest border evolve, U.S. officials point out that this violence is caused not only by drug-trafficking organizations, but also by human-smuggling and human-trafficking groups. ICE says that international organizations earn hundreds of millions of dollars annually through smuggling and exploitation of illegal immigrants. ICE investigations into these increasingly ruthless groups have yielded more than 5,400 criminal arrests, 2,300 criminal convictions and the seizure of nearly $27 million in 2005.

In one case that culminated in January, ICE agents in Texas arrested the leaders of two criminal organizations for smuggling more than 600 aliens across the Southwest border. These organizations allegedly generated more than $1.6 million in smuggling fees.

Tunnels

Illegal efforts to cross the border occur not only on the surface, but also underground, according to Marcy Forman, director of the Office of Investigations at ICE. In a March 1 statement before the Senate subcommittees, she pointed out that ICE - working with Mexican law enforcement officials, as well as DEA and CBP officials - discovered a tunnel beneath the border between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, in January.

The tunnel, Forman noted, was 755 meters long and descended to a maximun depth of 25 meters below ground. Two days after the tunnel was discovered, Mexican authorities executed a search warrant at a related location in Mexico, where they seized 1,974 kilograms of marijuana. An additional 137 kilograms of marijuna were found at tunnel exit inside a warehouse in California.

Forman said the discovery of the tunnel indicates that smuggling organizations are turning to increasinlgy advanced and costly smuggling methods, but he expressed optimism that U.S. and Mexican officials are up to the task of thwarting these groups.

"We have confidence in the abilities of the dedicated officers on both sides of the boder to detect and seal tunnels such as these," Forman said.

Combatting The Business of Crossborder Crime

While ICE is a relatively new law enforcement agency, Forman indicated that it is uniquely equiped to traget the financial lifeblood that sustains human trafficking and the illegal movement of drugs and weapons.

Building on the experience of its predecessor agencies, she said, ICE "has achieved great success in choking off the illict finances that fuel criminal operations."

The U.S. official explained that this is done, in part, through the aggressive investigation of bulk cash smuggling, money laundering and other financial crimes. Forman said ICE and CBP cumulatively have seized more than $160 million of funds involved in bulk cash smuggling operations, and have seized an additional $25 million as a result of ICE investigations of unlicensed money-services businesses.

Forman told legislators that as smuggling activities evolve in dangerous ways, the stakes are getting higher, particularly in view of the potential for terrorists to exploit these criminal enterprises and border vulnerabilities to enter or attack the United States. Even so, she said, ICE is up to the task of responding to threats against the nation.

"We know the threats, we know the risks, and we know that there can be no homeland security with anything less than vigorous enforcement against those who seek to use the nation's borders against U.S. citizens," she said.

Source: U.S. Department of State