Watch: Border Patrol Cameras Catch Armed Gunmen Dropping Woman, Son Off at Border
United States Customs and Border Protection released footage this past week of a successful attempt by multiple armed gunmen to smuggle illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border.
The over two-minute long video from Border Patrol cameras shows five masked men — some armed with assault rifles — pulling up to the border in a large vehicle on Saturday night and aiding a mother and her 8-year-old son sneak through a small segment of fencing into Arizona.
“Border Patrol cameras observed several men armed with assault rifles escort a mother and child to the international boundary west of Lukeville,” officials wrote in a description accompanying the video on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service website.
The video was also posted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Twitter account Tuesday.
#BorderPatrol cameras observed armed men escorting a mother and her 8-year-old son to the int’l boundary west of Lukeville, AZ. The armed men dropped off the pair in an area commonly used by smugglers to bring large groups of Central Americans into the country illegally. pic.twitter.com/xwJZZgvlbD
— CBP (@CBP) April 23, 2019
According to the description, the area is “commonly used by smugglers to bring massive numbers of Central Americans into the country illegally.”
Border Patrol reports released earlier this year indicate that the Yuma sector has one of the highest family and group apprehension rates of any section of the southern border, with the area between Tuscon and Yuma, Arizona, seeing groups as large as 100 smuggled across the border.
Justin Kallinger, a spokesman for the sector, told the Washington Examiner earlier this month that so many as 99 percent of those apprehended in the sector had paid upwards of $1,000 to be smuggled across by armed groups similar to the one shown in Saturday’s video.
Kallinger also said that the use of children in smuggling operations at the southern border has become the “new advantageous tactic.”
“They can utilize loopholes in the immigration law. These children don’t know. They take these one month trips — traversing through horrible, horrible conditions multiple times,” Kallinger told the Examiner.
“Certain children are being recycled, 4-, 8-, 10-year-old children. They come with false documents from adults,” Kallinger added.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has been active on Twitter in the day since the video was posted, showcasing sizable drug busts at ports of entry nearby in Arizona.
#CBP officers at the Port of Nogales in AZ seized over 4,100lbs of marijuana worth nearly $2.1M following a K9 alert. The drugs were hidden within a shipment of rolled sheet metal. Details: https://t.co/suhrzUZM9k pic.twitter.com/pPWMoaO8fR
— CBP (@CBP) April 24, 2019
#CBP officers at the Port of Nogales seized more than 12lbs of meth worth nearly $37K in a single incident over the weekend. The driver of the vehicle was arrested. Learn more: https://t.co/mdptLFH7uR pic.twitter.com/Qk0CkV8Bge
— CBP (@CBP) April 24, 2019
They also released a tweet attempting to bring attention to the tendency of these smugglers to abandon those who have paid them, leaving them in remote and dangerous places without proper supplies or protections.
Criminal organizations often abandon migrants in the desert. #BorderPatrol agents recently rescued 2 illegal aliens after they activated a rescue beacon in AZ. The beacons are solar powered and feature instructions in multiple languages. https://t.co/fydqgC583n pic.twitter.com/rSghLoHF48
— CBP (@CBP) April 24, 2019
“Criminal organizations often abandon migrants in the desert. #BorderPatrol agents recently rescued 2 illegal aliens after they activated a rescue beacon in AZ. The beacons are solar powered and feature instructions in multiple languages,” the tweet read.
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