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| Mexican Home Invasion Hit Team Arrested In Phoenix |
| 2010-10-31 |
| A traffic stop led state and local officials to a small arsenal of weapons in a west Phoenix trailer park Friday afternoon. Based on the type of armored vests discovered in the home, along with a T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a local law-enforcement agency's special-operations unit, investigators speculate that they could have stumbled upon a home-invasion crew. Eight men were in custody and being processed at a Department of Public Safety station in central Phoenix following the arrests. Investigators have not determined how many of the men will face state charges. DPS detectives in the gang- and immigration-enforcement unit known as IIMPACT believe all the suspects entered the country from Mexico without proper documentation. The investigation began to unfold just before noon Friday when a Phoenix police officer made a traffic stop near 67th Avenue and Van Buren Street. The officer began questioning the driver after noticing hidden compartments in the vehicle. The investigation led police to a trailer park in the 6400 block of West Van Buren Street. Officers contacted two men outside a trailer home and called out another five from inside the brown single-wide trailer, all of whom cooperated with the investigation without resistance, said DPS Capt. Fred Zumbo, who is assigned to the IIMPACT task force. When officers went inside the trailer, they found ammunition, a pair of rifles, a shotgun, handguns and two armored vests outfitted with ceramic plates, which can be used to stop shots fired from rifles. Although the trailer contained telltale signs of a home-invasion crew, Zumbo hesitated to directly link the men to the drug cartels that have plagued Mexico with violence. Instead, he compared the group to independent contractors. "They're workers. I liken them to terrorist cells," Zumbo said. "Certainly, they are doing work for the cartels." |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #14 Pappy - it would seem that free-lance hit teams would be dangerous for internal security, mistakes, uncontrollable, etc. I suspect they are aligned, but not full-time soldiers |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-10-31 20:09 |
| #13 It's possible, bad. The question is still whether they were freelancers working for a particular cartel, or any number of cartels, or just organized crime groups. Kidnapping for ransom is big business in Phoenix and has been for a few years. Most likely we won't see any specific information for months, if ever. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2010-10-31 19:12 |
| #12 The upshot to all the above is that at least when there's a Sinaloa Cartel operation in an area, there's usually a commander on site. Apparently, Shorty doesn't like details too much, but he likes controls, so he delegates authority to site commanders like the late Ms. Griego. If this was a Sinaloa operation, it's pretty likely there's a site commander nearby. |
| Posted by: badanov 2010-10-31 13:48 |
| #11 Pappy: When Sinaloa Chihuahua,Chihuahua commander Elizabeth Rodriguez Griego was murdered last August, it came out that Griego gave to go ahead for the abduction of current Chihuahua Governor Cesar Duarte's nephew, which ended with the nephew being murdered after resisting the abduction; I was left with the impression that cartel subcommanders like Griego are hands on kind of people. They intervene when there's a fat target, they order their teams to take on a specific target and they generally know what is about to take place within their area of operation. The murder of Duarte's nephew appeared to be a political crime, a signal, if you will, that the Sinaloa Cartel can own him so he better line up at the payee window. I suspect that if this group has Sinaloa ties, that a subcommander is probably in the area giving orders, selecting targets, etc. |
| Posted by: badanov 2010-10-31 13:36 |
| #10 If that is so, then you can bet whichever one of the cartels fund these guys have a commander in Phoenix collecting the vig these guys generate. The payments could be (and likely are) made in Mexico. Less scrutiny. Possibly a coordinator, but even then that could be south of the border. Officers contacted two men outside a trailer home and called out another five from inside the brown single-wide trailer, all of whom cooperated with the investigation without resistance A indication that the police were dealing with pros. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2010-10-31 13:02 |
| #9 "a T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a local law-enforcement agency's special-operations unit," If they are invading homes disguised as cops they should throw away the key. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2010-10-31 10:49 |
| #8 Not to worry, the judge will let them go. We all know the Phoenix PD are racist and this traffic stop was not legal. The only people you can pull over is white guys and moms in SUVs. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2010-10-31 10:40 |
| #7 Has the DOJ filed charges against the police officer who made the traffic stop yet? Sadly I am not kidding..... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2010-10-31 10:12 |
| #6 "They're workers. I liken them to terrorist cells," Zumbo said. "Certainly, they are doing work for the cartels." If that is so, then you can bet whichever one of the cartels fund these guys have a commander in Phoenix collecting the vig these guys generate. BTW, good catch Anonymoose. |
| Posted by: badanov 2010-10-31 08:50 |
| #5 Probably just trying to make their way to Kalipornia, Vegas, Philadelphia, or Chicago to to vote. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-10-31 08:41 |
| #4 ..without |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-10-31 08:36 |
| #3 without proper |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-10-31 08:24 |
| #2 So the traffic stop thingy is working. Well done, Arizona! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-10-31 08:17 |
| #1 believe all the suspects entered the country from Mexico without proper documentation. call it the way it is: ILLEGAL ALIENS friggin PC bullshit |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-10-31 06:09 |