In this video I pass through a border patrol checkpoint manned by 3 armed federal agents, and briefly discuss reasons these checkpoints don’t work to stop trafficking or illegal immigration - relaying first hand info from a local former cartel insider, who explained to me how he as a driver successfully got illegals from the Mexican border to Phoenix without the checkpoints getting in the way.
An older fellow who has been camping well beyond my current campsite in the Las Cienegas Conservation Area for a couple months, stopped by to introduce himself and give me a little extra firewood he had, as he had noticed my tent when the sun reflected off of the stovepipe.
The conversation turned to illegals, when I asked him if they travel through this land at all, and it turns out he used to drive illegals from the border to Phoenix for the Cartel, who were often running drugs.
I was informed that the border patrol checkpoints are absolutely worthless at stopping illegals or intercepting traffickers. Those being smuggled into the country are simply dropped off a few miles before the checkpoint, the driver then drives the empty vehicle through, and picks up the passengers a few hours later and miles beyond the checkpoint, after they have walked around.
The riskiest part of the job and pretty much only time at risk of being busted was picking people up at the border. This man told me he would scout an entire square mile or several square miles around the pickup location before the pickup, to ensure there was no border patrol in the area. Payment was $8,000 per carload of illegals, carried from the border to Phoenix.
Sometimes when an area was too heavily patrolled to safely get through, and the Cartel had people waiting, they would simply sacrifice a few illegals in a decoy vehicle to distract border patrol as they drove people with the drugs on t them right through. There was both drug trafficking and illegals simply trying to get across, that the Cartel dealt with. Illegals not working for the Cartel would simply pay a fee for the organized help across. The driver would then meetup with Cartel associates in Phoenix, who would pickup the illegals (sometimes carrying drugs), pay the driver, and take things from there.
Anyway, I found the information quite interesting, and figured I share it, because I was unfamiliar with the specifics of these operations, and had certainly never spoken firsthand with someone who had been in the game before.
It would seem that if the border patrol was serious about intercepting illegals and truly wanted to stop the narcotics and humans trafficking, that they would put all their resources along the border, rather than setting up useless checkpoints 25-30 miles north of the border on every single road, that don’t do a damn bit of good, except to further the implementation of the American Police State.