Southern Border Sheriffs Outgunned by Drug Cartels
Drug cartels operating along the southwestern U.S. border are a "country unto themselves" with intelligence capabilities, weaponry and communications equipment that far exceed the resources made available to local law enforcement in the U.S., according to sheriffs who have organized a new border security coalition.

Sheriff Leo Samaniego of El Paso County, Texas, told Cybercast News Service that the same infrastructure that facilitates illegal immigration from Mexico creates enormous opportunities for heavily armed criminal enterprises like drug cartels and terrorists.

"A lot of people make their living transporting illegal aliens," Samaniego said. "The 'coyotes' [as human smugglers are called] get them across the border but there is a network of individuals involved in transporting them once they get to safe houses."

The same methods of concealment and transportation are being exploited by the drug cartels, Samaniego explained.

Though immigration violations technically fall within the purview of the federal government, Samaniego says the local officials must often bear the full force of the crimes that attach themselves to illicit border crossings.

Those crimes include drug smuggling, human trafficking, trespassing, destruction of property, vehicle theft and even kidnappings and murders.

Samaniego believes many Mexican drug cartel members actually live in the U.S. and function as part of one of the largest criminal enterprises in the world.

"Federal, state and local officers all along the southwest border of the United States are outgunned and outmanned," Samaniego told the House International Relations Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation in July.

Sheriff's deputies are advised to "back off," Samaniego told Cybercast News Service, when they see well armed individuals from cartels and other criminal organizations.

Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez of Zapata County, Texas, has been in touch with a number of informants familiar with the drug cartel operations.

"They tell me that what we have are water guns when compared with what the drug cartels are using," Gonzalez said.

The weaponry used by the cartels includes machine guns, grenades and grenade launchers, Gonzalez said, adding that the cartels also have expertise in the use of explosives.

Rick Glancey, who serves as the executive director of the Texas Sheriffs Border Coalition, says local law enforcement is hampered by financial and regulatory provisos that do not apply to cartels, which operate with seemingly unlimited resources.

"They have the ability to purchase military equipment where all we can do is purchase local law enforcement equipment," he said. "We'll never be able to see an even playing field. We just hope to be smarter."

Although law enforcement continues to face daunting challenges, Glancey and Samaniego both said some of the newer initiatives organized through the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition hold enormous promise.

"Operation Linebacker" was launched in September 2005 and holds great promise in the eyes of local law enforcement. Its central objective is to maximize resources on the state and local level. Since the operation went into effect, sheriffs have observed a significant reduction in both illegal immigration and various criminal activities.

"The results have been outstanding," Samaniego said.

Samaniego said that, within just a few weeks after the operation began, some problem areas for illegal immigration in the Del Rio region experienced as much as a 75-percent drop in the crime rate.

"We are proving that if you provide enough resources on the border, federal, state, county as well as municipal, we can make a difference," Samaniego said. "We can shut it down, if we have the manpower."

Governor supports 'Operation Linebacker,' secures additional funding

In response to the success of those border enforcement efforts, Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry expanded the concept, launching "Operation Rio Grande." The move assigns Texas Rangers, state troopers and members of the Civil Air Patrol to assist Operation Linebacker.

Perry also announced in June that the state would spend $20 million to continue Operation Rio Grande. The money has paid for body armor, night vision goggles, technology upgrades and overtime expenses.

Sheriffs have received another $10 million in federal funding, primarily from criminal justice grants, for Operation Linebacker since the beginning of the year.

The money pays for additional personnel and equipment. The influx of federal money to the sheriffs is also financing "Citizen Police Academies" to train local volunteers and increase community involvement in border protection efforts.

Members of the sheriff's coalition agree that insufficient communications equipment is a major challenge that must be addressed.

Glancey would like to see some form of satellite communications availability. He's also concerned about the technical capacity cartels have to listen to the conversations of local law enforcers.

"There are some areas from Brownsville to El Paso where we would have to seriously consider the encryption of our signal because of the ability of the cartels and others to tap into our radio frequency," Glancey said.

Using encryption would have another benefit: It would allow sheriffs' deputies to communicate more easily with federal agencies, which already encrypt their radio transmissions.

The border sheriffs' coalition insists that the positive results from Operation Linebacker prove that the right mix of ingenuity and willpower can secure the border and frustrate the drug cartels.

"These operations have proven to be very successful for the border," Gonzalez said. "Texas is the 'can-do state.' We are showing the federal government how it should be done."

Glancey warns, however, that too many of the most important decisions about immigration policy and border enforcement are made by members of Congress from non-border regions. Those officials, Glancey explained, don't always understand the consequences of their decisions.

Kathy Walt, spokeswoman for Perry, told Cybercast News Service that the governor's office will try to devote any excess unspent state funds to Operation Linebacker before the end of the year.

Perry sees enormous potential in the on-going border security efforts modeled after Operation Linebacker. Walt said that she expects additional border security initiatives to be launched in the future.

"We know that by conducting these heavy concentrations of law enforcement," Walt said, "that the mere presence of law enforcement along the border has shutdown a lot of criminal activity."