There are good reasons why residents in Arizona are freaked by what’s happening on their border. It’s not just xenophobia and racism. Unlike other states, the Arizona border is so rugged that a fence can’t be built, hence it is widely used as a conduit for drug and human smuggling. While we may ponder whether a fence makes sense, if one area doesn’t have one and the rest do, that’s where they will come through.
The cartel wars over disputed territories are also beginning to reach the United States. Executions, kidnappings, confrontations between armed groups, and attacks on police and federal agents are becoming a common occurrence on towns located on the edge of the border.
The sheriff of Valle Vekol [Arizona], Paul Babeu said in an interview with El Universal, that the Mexican cartels have recently been sending sicarios [hit men] along with their drug shipments to protect their product from armed gangs who specialize in ripping off stash houses that are operating in the area.
From Borderland Beat, translated from El Universal