‘Coyote’ wars move to Valley

Rival gangs of human smugglers no longer battle for supremacy on busy freeways. The fight has come to quiet residential streets.

Like any trade involving illicit contraband, violence always has surrounded the trade of smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States. With “coyotes” continually scheming to eliminate competitors and steal their lucrative cargo, the crackle of gunfire often broke the silence of the desert.

But after successful interdiction efforts on Arizona’s highways, police and prosecutors say they now are seeing more crimes committed in the Valley.

“If you’re an innocent person living in a neighborhood where there’s a drop house, you have reason to be concerned,” said Arizona Department of Public Safety Lt. Fred Zumbo, an immigration enforcement expert.

Phoenix police recently touted a successful investigation into kidnappings and extortion attempts stemming from human smuggling. In this instance, the crime scenes were single-family homes.

According to authorities, smuggler Luis Armando Camacho-Pasos showed patience in destroying a rival gang.

He went to Mexico, approached a coyote and posed as an illegal immigrant needing help to cross the border. Once stashed in a west Phoenix drop house in June, Pasos told the smugglers to meet his wife nearby, where she would pay the remainder of his fee.

But there was no wife, and there certainly wasn’t any money. Instead, Pasos’ armed gang jumped the other smugglers, seizing the competing ring’s “cargo,” taking their captive immigrants to their own drop house and then extorting money from them.

In 2006, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona investigated 100 calls in which migrants were held hostage, usually while coyotes were squeezing them for more money.

But ICE spokesman Vinnie Picard said the agency does not track how many cases specifically relate to one group of smugglers overtaking another.

Pasos was brought to justice after an illegal immigrant escaped and called police. Last month, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for kidnapping and weapons violations.

“These are very dangerous crimes taking place within our community,” Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Joel Tranter said. He estimated that city’s authorities respond to smuggling-related kidnapping calls on a weekly basis.

Why these incidents are taking place within the Valley can be found in the wreckage of two bullet-riddled and blood-drenched vehicles along Interstate 10.

On the same day in November 2003, coincidentally, that Mexico’s president visited Phoenix, a group of bajadores — bandits ripping off other smugglers — commandeered a pickup filled with illegal immigrants northwest of Tucson. But one of the original smugglers escaped and called his compatriots in Phoenix, who came to his aid.

The first group eventually caught up with the bajadores near Casa Grande and opened fire.

The toll: four dead, five wounded and four arrested.

A similar incident took place in rural Pima County earlier this year, with three killed.

In response to the mayhem, DPS fought back earlier this year with “Operation Full Court Press,” which Zumbo described as a thorough interdiction effort along the border and on major traffic arteries heading into the state. Scores of arrests followed.

“But it’s like a big chess match, in that we do something and then they counter it,” Zumbo said. “So, they’ve countered it by not using the main highways.”