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| The murder of rancher Bob Krentz - Be advised, this is UNCONFIRMED reporting. | |
| 2010-04-23 | |
| Forwarded to me by a friend who recently retired from border patrol......... As you know, one of the local ranchers was murdered in Douglas two weeks ago. His funeral is tomorrow. I received three messages similar to the one below from different officers within the Rangers and law enforcement. Yesterday afternoon I talked to another rancher near us who is a friend of ours and whose great grandfather started their ranch here in 1880. These are good people. He told me what really happened out at the Krentz ranch and what you won't read in the papers. The Border Patrol is afraid of starting a small war between civilians here and the drug cartels in Mexico. Bob Krentz was checking his water like he does every evening and came upon an illegal who was lying on the ground telling him he was sick. Bob called the Border Patrol and asked for a medical helicopter evac. As he turned to go back to his ATV he was shot in the side. The round came from down and angled up so they know the shooter was on the ground. Bob's firearm was in the ATV so he had no chance. Wounded he called the Cochise County Sherriff and asked for help. Bleeding in the lungs he called his brother but the line was bad so he called his wife but again the line was bad. Several ranchers heard the radio call and drove to his location. Bob was dead by this time. The ranchers tracked the shooter 8 miles back towards Mexico and cornered him in a brushy draw. This was all at night. The Sherriff and Border Patrol arrived and told them not to go down and engage the murderer. They went around to the back side and if you can believe it the assassin managed to get by a BP helicopter and a Sherriff's posse and back to Mexico. So much for professional help when you need it. One week before the murder Bob and his brother Phil (who I shoot with) hauled a huge quantity of drugs off the ranch that they found in trucks. One week before that a rancher near Naco did the same thing. Two nights later gangs broke into his ranch house and beat him and his wife and told them that if they touched any drugs they found they would come back and kill them. The ranchers here deal with cut fences and haul drug deliveries off their ranches all the time. What ranchers think is that the drug cartels beat the one rancher and shot Bob because they wanted to send a message. Bob always gave food and water to illegals and so they think they sent the assassin to pose as an illegal who was hungry and thirsty knowing it would catch Bob off guard. What is going on down here is NOT being reported. You need to tell people how bad it is along the border. Texas is worse. Near El Paso it's in a state of war. 5000 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez last year and it's over 2000 so far this year. Gun sales down here are through the roof and I get emails from people wanting firearms training. Something has to be done but I don't hold out much hope. These gangs have groups in almost every city in the US. This is serious business. The Barrio Azteca and their sub gangs are like Mexican Corporations and organized extremely well. If this doesn't get dealt with down here you guys will deal with it on your streets. Bud Again note that this is unconfirmed and an e-mail from a private person. AoS.
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| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #15 Rem 700 Sendero II in .300 RUM |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2010-04-23 21:19 |
| #14 Good information. We are talking a serious firearm and a sticker shock price ($6000-$7000 or so). Somehow I don't see TARP funds being provided by this administration. A good 0.308 might be sufficient for ranch protection. Still don't see TARP funds being made available. When you start talking long range rifles, one has trouble selling the weapon as being a self-defense weapon--unless of course you are being shot at with similar weapons. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-04-23 18:51 |
| #13 Don't buy Barrett's, buy McMillan's. TAC-50's; MUCH more accurate, reliable, and the new 'special' recoil-absorbing ones kick like .308's (albeit slightly 'heavy' .308's). Plus, they are local (Phoenix, AZ). Call Ryan McMillan, they are his babies. And God knows I think very highly of Ronnie Barrett. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2010-04-23 17:37 |
| #12 This explains why John McCain suddenly became anti-Illegal-Immigration, when all along he was for it. He knows this WILL cost him re-election if it gets out. |
| Posted by: Andy Angineling8252 2010-04-23 17:29 |
| #11 That's SB1070. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-04-23 16:44 |
| #10 AZ gov is announcing right now that she is signing the bill (SB10) and directing AZ peace officers to be trained to properly enforce it. Live video at foxnews.com . The restaurant where I just ate lunch showed huge crowds protesting. But she's gonna sign anyway. "We must acknowledge the truth," she says. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-04-23 16:40 |
| #9 abu et. al: This is why I said governor, not government. Right now the AZ legislature is very feisty, and even in tight budget times would be more than happy to set up a system like this. Since the Border Patrol will probably be ordered to go back to "catch and release", what the State would probably do is set up a Joe Arpaio style tent jail near the border, then hold them on trespassing charges, then boot them back into Mexico ourselves. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-04-23 16:04 |
| #8 Dum and Dee need to be defenestrated. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-04-23 14:50 |
| #7 b) neither 'dum nor 'dee Fixed it for you, lex dear. It can't be that they haven't a clue, because the answer is inherent in the statement of the problem. Closing the border would make dealing with the problems on our side relatively trivial. And really, something that could be handled at the state/local level if the feds would consent to get out of the way. Anonymoose, your solution doesn't rely on a bad economy to work. Even in good times the locals would be happy to get a bit of a payment for doing something they'd mostly be happy to do anyway, if only they wouldn't get arrested for it. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-04-23 14:15 |
| #6 Hm. How much for the actual head, Moose? |
| Posted by: Woozle Ebbunter3968 2010-04-23 14:03 |
| #5 It's obvious that neither party wants to touch this toxic mess, for the following reasons: a) the status quo offers significant benefits to both Tweedledum and Tweedledee: 'dum wants cheap labor to drive wages down, and 'dee wants a lock on the fast-growing and soon-to-be-dominant (in the SW) latino vote; b) neither 'dum nor 'dee has any clue how to deal with the core problem, which is that we have an open border with a failing state; c) even if a) and b) were not true, neither 'dum nor 'dee has the will to fix what's broken. Any real solution will be socially difficult, extremely expensive, and will consume significant bandwidth, both in terms of law enforcement resources and federal funds, at a time when neither 'dum nor 'dee wants distractions from the economic, HC and Afghan war fronts. Thus are great nations brought low. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-04-23 13:34 |
| #4 Possibly supply TARP funds for ranchers to purchase Barrett 50 cals. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-04-23 13:18 |
| #3 The Border Patrol is afraid of starting a small war between civilians here and the drug cartels in Mexico. Maybe that should be allowed to happen. Declare open season on all varmints. Pay bounty. End of problem. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-04-23 13:16 |
| #2 the faulty assumption here moose is that the Govt wants to do anything about this. a solved problem doesn't bring in Fed dollars or require ongoing legislation that keeps the lobbyist gravy train rolling. how would the local publicity whores get on the TV if the problem went away? no an actual solution is the last thing those guys want. |
| Posted by: abu do you love 2010-04-23 13:07 |
| #1 The governor could change the entire equation by instituting a relatively low cost solution: a bounty. It is simplicity itself. Offer citizens say, $50 a day and $20 a head to radio report in when they observe suspected illegals in the border area. The citizens are given half a dozen rotating radio frequencies that are monitored, and a five digit daily code identifier. Then they go out into the desert and are assigned an observation point. When they call in, they use a simple format to describe what they see. And if the suspected illegals are detained, and shown to be illegal, then the observer gets credited an automatic amount to their account. Even better, observers can work as a group, with some members providing support and others spotting, and they get paid as a group. There would likely be some requirements, like observers having at least two people on an OP, that one or both be armed, and that they carry or have available to them suitable water, and be certified for desert survival. But right now, with high unemployment, $50 a day and $20 a head sounds like very good money, especially if you get a high traffic area, but costs just a fraction of the amount a National Guardsman or a uniformed officer costs. As needed, I could even imagine erecting some armored observation towers, somewhat like the military use in Iraq and Afghanistan, over ground that is more flat. They have a very good field of observation. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-04-23 13:02 |