Drug cartel scouts living in mountains south of Phoenix

The mountain peak provides 360-degree views of the desert below. To the east, the homes and businesses of Casa Grande dot the landscape. To the north, the lights of Phoenix glimmer in the distance. But to the west and south, there is just desert as far as the eye can see. It is this vantage point that is coveted by Mexican drug cartel scouts, stationed up here for weeks at a time, and tasked with one job: guiding drug shipments north from the border. “They’re radioing in, letting the smugglers know when it’s time to start going,” said Detective Eddie Castro, with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office. Castro works on the smuggling unit. And business is brisk in this area, about 40 miles south of Phoenix, near Interstate 8. It’s a straight shot through the desert from the border with Mexico. “We’ve seen the big marijuana loads. We’ve seen cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine. We’ve kind of seen them all come through here,” Castro said. Castro points to the mountain range next to an area known locally as Hidden Valley. “We’ve been told from five to seven scouts are sitting in this area and guiding them through here,” said Castro. Pinal County has begun arresting and charging the scouts with conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the United States, but as often as they are arrested on top of these peaks, they are quickly replaced...MORE

At this point the journalists decided to go see for themselves if indeed these cartel scouts existed. They found one, and this is part of what they reported:

...I’m looking to see if he reaches for a gun, which he does not. He tells me he does not want me to take pictures of him or his camp, and tells me I need to leave the mountaintop. I walk through the camp, trying to make small talk in Spanish, recording the conversation with my phone, but not videotaping him. What I see amazes me. It’s like a small military forward operating base. I see gear boxes covered in camouflage material, bags shoved into cracks in the boulders, a kitchen with a stove set up under a rock overhang (I assume to avoid detection by helicopters) and solar panels set out to recharge the scouts’ electronic equipment. As I make it to the back side of the peak, I hear more voices. The thought of running into more of them gets me thinking that I need to start hiking back down the hill – and quickly...

Arizona has much federally owned land along their border with Mexico, including Wilderness areas, Wildlife Refuges and other areas where restrictions are placed on the Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies. Thanks to Senators Heinrich and Udall, here in Dona Ana County we are about to have 240,000 acres of Wilderness designated on or near our border with Mexico.