Mexican Drug Cartel solders shot in Arizona desert: Los Zetas officer says shoot to kill Americans

July 9, 2010 - PRLog -- One of my informants that I have called Juan in previous news reports, called me recently on the cell phone he provided me at out last meeting a month or so ago. He told me that his boss a Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel officer wanted to meet with me and give me some important information regarding the so called war on drugs raging on the border. A date and time was set up for this meeting at a public place.

During this encounter the Mexican I met was clean shaving with a military style, “high and tight” short hair cut, who looked to be about, I guess 35 years old or so, who claimed to be an officer in the Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel organization. He told me straight out that he believed two of his men were shot and killed recently in the desert in Arizona by American vigilantes and he would be taking revenge. He first said he thought that his men where killed by opposing drug cartel member gangs. He said he and his men had killed several gang members recently who they thought was responsible for those killings and other recent attacks in the area. That bloody confrontation took place just south of the Arizona border. The shootout,  left 21 dead. The violence took place between the hamlets of Saric and Tubutama, along a notorious smuggling corridor. Nearby is the town of Altar, which I have reported on in the past and which for more than a decade has been a major staging area for illegal smugglers headed for the Arizona border. 


Here's what you likely missed: Rival Mexican drug gangs shot it out 12 miles outside of Arizona, leaving 21 dead. At least six others were wounded.

The Los Zetas officer said “I now believe my men were shot by crazed American vigilante cowards, who ambushed my solders at night, shot them from a great distance using high powered American rifles. Than our load of drugs were stolen”.
He said, “this is a warning to those type groups that his men have been instructed to shoot and kill any Americans who are seen armed and roaming the deserts”. He went on to say that the murder of his men has not been properly investigated by the sheriff of Pinal County.

The Los Zetas officer said "I believe there is a cover-up by sheriff  Paul Babeu by protecting the Americans who did the killings. If the true facts of this case are not revealed publicly and the guilty ones are not brought to justice then I will hold the sheriff personally responsible".

The Los Zetas officer went on to tell me that “I have many of my Zetas solders posted throughout the area watching these groups and there movements and it will be just a matter of time before our side gets revenge”. “ In the mean time you must leave our people alone and the drugs they carry or my instructions we’ll stand and this will mean war.”


Vigilante type death squads roam the Mexican drug cartels drug corridors choke points, hunting for armed drug smugglers. These patrols are heavily armed with military style automatic and semi automatic weapons including 50 cal sniper rifles with night vision scopes and use technology such as night vision goggles, Vietnam error ground sensors and hidden trail cameras. Using these sophisticated weapons and technology make them a real force to be reckoned with and very dangerous while patrolling the Arizona desert and many other locations from Texas to California.

 
A spokesperson told the media that when the 911 call came in deputies immediately started a search but found the two bodies shot to death after four hours of looking. As a result of this violence Babeu asked President Barack Obama to send 3000 National Guard troops to the border to help stop it.
"We can't patrol not only these remote areas; we have a hard enough time just responding to our emergencies,"
Deputies found an automatic rifle near one of the men who was killed. The pair has yet to be identified but Babeu believes one of the men has been caught illegally in the United States at least seven times.

During that 911 call, a wounded suspected smuggler revealed tantalizing familiarity with the shooting of a Pinal County sheriff's deputy, the sheriff said. The caller now suspected of being a drug smuggler called 911 that evening after he and a partner were shot while walking up a smuggling trail in southwestern Pinal County. He and the partner died in a remote area before officers could find them. While trying to explain his location to a dispatcher, the suspected smuggler said in Spanish that he was "right here where they shot the sheriff."...

Here is a partial transcript of the June 6 911 call with a person identified as Omar that the

Pinal County Sheriff's Department released Friday.

First Phone Call: (1931)
Dispatcher: 9-1-1, what is your location? Hello? Do you have an emergency?
How can I help you?
Caller: Yes, somebody shot me, we were running.
Dispatcher: Where are you?
Caller: Right here at the 8, in this area.
Dispatcher: Where are you?
Caller: Right here where they shot the sheriff, on this side. By the store, there's a little hill please send a (sheriff) because there are some people, they want to jump us, they want to rob us and somebody shot us.
Dispatcher: Did you say on highway 8?
Caller: Yes. On the 8, the little hill right on the trail.
Caller: It is where it happened the last time where they shot the sheriff.
Dispatcher: Did they shoot you?
Caller: Yes, me and my partner. Because they want to rob us.
Dispatcher: Right now?
Caller: Yes, right now, right now.
Dispatcher: Where are you injured?
Caller: Right here in my stomach. I am bleeding a lot, I cannot walk.
Dispatcher: Did you say there's another person injured?
Caller: Yes, there is someone else but I can't hear him anymore.
(Phone disconnected)
Caller phones in again …
Dispatcher: Where are you at right now?
Caller: Well, just let him (a deputy) know to go to the 150, I've already figured out where I am at, I was selling cantaloupe here before. I already know this location from before.
Caller: I'm telling you to send the (sheriff) and you're going to find me.
(Line disconnects)
Caller: Are you going to come and get me? I can't speak a lot anymore. I am bleeding a lot. Please! (moaning) (praying) … just let me die.
Dispatcher: Omar, which side do you see the lights? Omar? Hello? Hello? Omar?

Babeu the high-profile Arizona sheriff who has been outspoken about his support for the state's controversial new immigration law is receiving death threats, myFOXphoenix.com reported recently.

Some of the threats against Babeu were from the Mexican mafia and drug cartel members according to the report.

Outside law enforcement teams brought in to investigate the threats found them credible.
Babeu was very outspoken about the need to secure the state's border with Mexico -- a known entry point to the U.S. for drug smugglers and illegal immigrant traffickers -- and supports law SB1070, which makes illegal immigration a state crime.
Despite the threats, Babeu declined a personal security detail because the county resources were already stretched.

"I understand this threat, yet I will not run in fear or change my support for SB1070 and my demands for President Obama to secure our border with 3,000 armed soldiers in Arizona and start building the fence again," he said.

"I'm always armed, and as every law enforcement member knows, we always have to be aware of our surroundings and possible threats."

Pinal County is nearly 5,400 square miles and much of the desert is known as a drug and human trafficking corridor.

The U .S. Border Fire report called Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu to ask how the investigation of the two dead Mexican Nationals is coming along. I wanted to ask if they had been identified and were there any suspects in the homicides? Was the sheriff investigating the possibility that American vigilantes had shot and killed the two Mexican Nationals? This was several days ago with no reply to date.