> On Jul 10, 5:13 am, "Iconoclast" ecoweb.co.zw> wrote:
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>>>Arizona towns hurt as gangs see smuggling profit

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>>>http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0344864020080708?pageNumb...

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>>>by  SphereBy Tim Gaynor

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>>>DOUGLAS, Ariz (Reuters) - Walls get tagged with graffiti. Cars get
>>>shot up in drive-by shootings. Youngsters flash gang signs and
>>>battle with bricks, sticks, bats and pipes in the local park over
>>>turf.

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>>>Once a sleepy smelter town on the Mexico border, Douglas is one of
>>>several cities in southern Arizona that are being transformed into
>>>urban battlefields as warring street gangs muscle in from southern
>>>California, police say.

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>>>A sun-baked backwater of broad streets and bungalows set in vast,
>>>high desert ranchland, Douglas is now a patchwork of territories
>>>held by the East Side Torrance and the South Side Harbor City, both
>>>Los Angeles-area street gangs, as well as lesser home-grown gangs.

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>>>A few miles up the road in nearby Sierra Vista, a boomtown in the
>>>shadow of the looming Huachuca Mountains, police say various
>>>factions of the Crips, also from Los Angeles, are warring for
>>>control of new streets, malls and subdivisions with the Bloodlines,
>>>a local gang.

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>>>The newcomers, many tattooed and wearing colors, are part of a
>>>scramble by street gangs to make money from tons of illegal drugs
>>>pouring over the border to Arizona from Mexico each month, along
>>>with tens of thousands of fee-paying illegal immigrants.

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>>>"For the gangs, it's always about the money," said Detective Tony
>>>Morales of the Arizona Department of Public Safety's State Gang
>>>Task Force, whose members patrol the streets of Douglas, population
>>>17,000, in flak jackets.

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>>>"Who has money? The people that move drugs have money, and the
>>>people that move illegal aliens have the money, and they end up in
>>>our corridor here."

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>>>Smuggling is big business in southern Arizona, where last year the
>>>Border Patrol seized 440 tons of marijuana in a furiously
>>>trafficked corridor south of Tucson and arrested more than 370,000
>>>illegal immigrants.

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>>>Police say the gangs, which offer easy money and a sense of
>>>belonging to youngsters, are recruiting teens and sometimes
>>>children as young as eight, as foot soldiers in the trade worth
>>>billions of dollars a year.

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>>>Gang members steal vehicles stateside and drive to Mexico where
>>>they collect marijuana loads and groups of fee-paying illegal
>>>immigrants from Mexican smugglers, as well as consignments of
>>>prescription drugs.

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>>>Crossing back north over remote stretches of the desert border,
>>>they spirit their loads up to the Interstate 10 freeway and on to
>>>Tucson, Phoenix and the gang wracked sprawl of southern California
>>>several hours drive to the west.

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>>>In fast growing Sierra Vista, population 42,000, police say the
>>>gangs are also carving up the city's neighborhoods among
>>>themselves, and peddling drugs including crack cocaine and
>>>methamphetamine to the new residents.

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>>>The gangs there include the Maryvale Crips -- a Phoenix affiliate
>>>of the notorious Los Angeles street gang -- and the so-called 520
>>>Crips, who take their name from the area code for Tucson and
>>>southern Arizona.

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>>>"The amount of money being made is unlimited," said Arturo Acosta,
>>>a Border Patrol agent assigned to a multi-agency gang taskforce
>>>that has been meeting since January to tackle the problem.

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>>>"Right now there is no end in sight, they'll just keep on coming."

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>>>The gangsters' arrival has been accompanied by increasingly brazen
>>>shootings and aggravated assaults as the proliferating street gangs
>>>scrabble for territory.

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>>>In Sierra Vista, it began with a drive by attack on a home last
>>>year, and spiraled to a spate of revenge shootings, resulting in
>>>one death and several woundings. as the violence gathered pace.

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>>>"It's getting worse, it's getting more public. It's not one-on-one
>>>anymore ... it's more in your face," said Lori Burdick, a detective
>>>with the Cochise County Sheriff's Office, who tracks the gangs.

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>>>To add to the misery, police say more California gangsters are
>>>pouring into the corridor each month, many fleeing the "three
>>>strike" law that puts repeat offenders behind bars for life on a
>>>third conviction.

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>>>Police have spotted members of the Fresno Bulldogs, from Fresno,
>>>California, in Sierra Vista, and affiliates of the Mara
>>>Salvatrucha, a Salvadoran gang originally out of Los Angeles, in
>>>Elfrida, a remote farming town nearby.

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>>>Then two weeks ago, graffiti for the Rollin 30's Crips, a gang from
>>>South Central Los Angeles, tagged a cinder-block wall in the city.

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>>>For worried city authorities in the corner of Arizona better known
>>>for its county fairs and rodeos, the spiraling problem marks a
>>>shocking loss of innocence.

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>>>"When I was young, the worst trouble we ever got into was for
>>>serenading our girlfriends late at night," said Douglas mayor
>>>Michael Gomez, a retired dentist who took office last month

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>> Iconoclastwww.rescuewithoutborders.org-Hide quoted text -

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>> - Show quoted text -

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> Yesterday I went with four other to clean up the trash left by latino
> "campers"
> along AZ's East Verder river. They leave behind diapers, sanitary
> napkins, bottles, etc.
> These mestizoes are filthy degenerates and the political scum allows
> this tragedy to
> continue. Make McCain and Obama pick up the trash left by their
> beloved hispanics.
>
> bill- Hide quoted text -
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> - Show quoted text -