I chuckled when I read that U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, reinforced his membership in “the sky is falling” club when he blamed illegal immigrants for some of the recent wildfires in Arizona. It’s real easy to blame someone from Mexico for the forest fires that are ravaging Arizona and any number of other problems facing Arizona and America.
McCain is only following the politically successful lead established by the likes of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, State Senate President Russell Pearce and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu. All four have targeted the “low hanging fruit” in the debate over illegal immigration.
Once it was just weed and dope smuggling that made money for entrepreneurial Mexican criminals. But thanks to failures by the U.S. and Mexican governments, human smuggling became a new and successful profit center for criminals who have evolved from small time hoods to transnational organized crime groups worth billions of dollars.
While McCain, Pearce, Arpaio and Babeu ride through the streets like Paul Revere yelling “the illegal aliens are coming,” the focus of Arizona residents and even law enforcement agencies who have to pander to powerful political figures has been focused almost exclusively on just one or two of the profit centers tied to Mexican organized crime. All while little or no attention is focused on multiple other mob profit centers.
In 2009 the National Drug Intelligence Center estimated that Mexican and Colombian cartels launder between $18 billion and $39 billion annually from wholesale drug sales. Much of that money is reportedly cash from the United States.
Last year U.S. Dept. of Justice officials estimated that approximately $2 million a day in cash profits just from drugs is moved from Arizona to Mexico.
In the 2010 report “What went wrong in the fight against organized crime in Mexico?” by Edgardo Buscaglia, a recognized expert on Mexican organized crime, the author said that the Mexican mob has diversified into at least 20 different areas they derive profits from and that only 45-48 percent of the mob’s profits now come from drug trafficking. Other profit centers include kidnapping, extortion, fraud, smuggling, piracy and trafficking in weapons.
A June 18 New York Times opinion piece, “Legalization Won’t Kill the Cartels,” by retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer Sylvia Longmire, pointed out Mexican crime groups have diversified successfully beyond drugs and are even involved in oil theft from Pemex, Mexico’s national oil company, and in pirated goods, “a crime that was once dominated by terrorists groups Hezbollah and Hamas.”
In the Feb. 3, 2011 Seattle Post Intelligencer story “Mexican drug cartel selling counterfeit Microsoft software,” it stated that according to an analysis by the Mexico Attorney General, one Mexican crime group’s illegal counterfeiting activities earn more than $2.2 million in revenue every day.
It’s no secret Arizona is a destination for Mexican organized crime. In 2009 the Arizona Department of Public Safety estimated 60 percent of the serious crime committed in our state is linked to organized crime. According to the 2010 National Drug Threat Assessment, Arizona has a presence of Mexican, Colombian, Asian and Cuban organized crime groups and that there are 10,000 or more gang members just in Maricopa County. Arizona has long been a melting pot of diversity when it comes to crime.
McCain’s rants about securing the border and his “danged fence” won’t stop or even slow the tidal wave of criminal activity flowing into Arizona. And it does nothing about crime and criminals that now call Arizona home.
Crossing into the U.S. without proper documentation is a serious issue and McCain should be concerned about it and human-caused forest fires. But he needs to understand blaming illegal immigrants for anything and everything that comes along has only allowed the Mexican mob and their organized crime affiliates to prosper in the state he has been elected to represent since 1982.
• Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill.richardson@cox.net
soricobob posted at 6:39 am on Fri, Jun 24, 2011.
Well said. Finger- pointing is an art developed by many, most of whom are quick to give a simple answer.
RationalHuman posted at 7:21 am on Fri, Jun 24, 2011.
Yes, finger pointing...like the La Raza/pro illegal crowd does every time they make a false claim of racism.
As for "quick to give a simply answer"...does "they just want a better life" sound familiar.
End the illegal takeover of our nation NOW.
RationalHuman posted at 7:23 am on Fri, Jun 24, 2011.
I wonder why a retired Mesa police officer would try to deflect the issue of illegal invaders...surely it has nothing to do with Mesa being a virtual Sanctuary City?
*chuckles*
mikedurham posted at 7:31 am on Fri, Jun 24, 2011.
Good column. Maybe McCain could help the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office clear up the status of 400 sexual assault cases in the West Valley from the Andrew Thomas era. I understand that some of those cases were reassigned. What McCain could do is get funding to pay for an audit of MCSO efforts to investigate cold cases. I'm sure that MCSO feels that it is protecting victims and case integrity by not talking about case investigations never started or not done. Did McCain ever initiate legislation on the movements of cash from drug sales to Mexico?
Dale Whiting posted at 1:54 pm on Fri, Jun 24, 2011.
We need a comprehensive approach to our illegal alien problem, not the band aids Neo-cons perscribe.
samkat posted at 9:26 pm on Fri, Jun 24, 2011.
Dale: Define your concept of a comprehensive immigration reform. So far, it has been nothing more than amnesty.
Mike: Why do we need McCain when we have Bill Richardson to solve the nation's problems. :-)
Reciprocator posted at 2:06 am on Sat, Jun 25, 2011.
Hey Sunshine: You are way off base! Call Nappy and Barry! Borders and protection is their territory. Go get some gerital.
Cerulean posted at 9:06 am on Sat, Jun 25, 2011.
Very well said, Bill.[smile]
I must admit some amusement at McCain myself.
Do I hear McCain? Hum, yah he has his nose in the fire, fanning the flames a bit.
When McCain was in Colorado in 2007 he said he would be part of an effort to secure the border. He said that comprehensive immigration reform meant three things: 1- securing the border 2-temporary work visas 3- dealing with the 12 million who are already here illegally.
How does McCain suggest we secure the border? What does that mean? He does not say.
http://youtu.be/1sIEAD_sVF0
NothingButTheTruth posted at 10:54 am on Sat, Jun 25, 2011.
"Crossing into the U.S. without proper documentation is a serious issue and McCain should be concerned about it and human-caused forest fires. But he needs to understand blaming illegal immigrants for anything and everything that comes along has only allowed the Mexican mob and their organized crime affiliates to prosper in the state he has been elected to represent since 1982."
Bill, your last paragraph seems to sum up your entire article. Politicians are politicians and McRino is no exception. Illegal immigration is a serious issue and it's the feds job to enforce, so why do you even bring up Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce and Sheriff Paul Babeu? Is it their job? How has their blaming illegal immigrants for anything and everything (ridicules exaggeration) allowed the Mexican mob and their organized crime affiliates to prosper in the state. I thought border security was the feds domain alone. Your entire article reeks of open border, pro illegal, BS. McRino has stated many times what is needed to stop the illegal trafficking from the south. We have 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to help defend it against North Korean aggression; U.S. troops have been stationed in South Korea for 58 years. How many did the feds send to guard against the trafficking from Mexico? Only 520 guardsmen are deployed in Arizona, a state with a 276-mile border with Mexico and the state that has, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the greatest influx of illegal aliens. Go ahead and try to blame Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce, Sheriff Paul Babeu, and McRino if if helps your pro illegal agenda, but don't think it fools anyone. Doesn't really even fool most of the commentators above, but it also serves their agendas. We need a minimum of 6,000 troops to be deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border: 3,000 in Arizona and 1,000 in each of the three other border states for a two-year period. Maybe then we can do something about the trafficking you agree is an issue that needs to be dealt with.
AmericanPatriot posted at 2:21 pm on Mon, Jun 27, 2011.
comprehensive immigration reform is where we both secure our borders and go after illegal aliens that have already succeeded in violating our border.
Masterrogue666 posted at 11:28 pm on Mon, Jun 27, 2011.
So, Bill, I take it you are against the "dang fence"? I guess you think the area (where that particular fire started is a main traffic area) should remain porus? Yuma's double fence has slowed down the flood of ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS to a manageable trickle. I guess you don't want to slow down ANYTHING, including amnesty.