Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Rules hinder effort to oust drug spotters

Excerpt:

"Officials told The Times that every potential smuggling corridor in Arizona is monitored by mountaintop spotters, who are usually low-level cartel employees or those who owe a debt to the cartel.
They are armed with radios and cellphones and occasionally with weapons, and are sometimes held responsible if the drug loads they are spotting for are interdicted by authorities."

Jesus wept,......

They're ALL armed to the [bleep]' TEETH !

GTC

Link: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/7/border-patrol-rules-hinder-effort-oust-drug-spotte/

The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol said Tuesday that his agents have a tough time ousting armed drug cartel spotters from the tops of U.S. mountains because the rules of engagement constrain them.

For years, cartels have stationed spotters on U.S. territory to help track American border efforts and to guide smugglers around roadblocks and past where agents are stationed. But in recent months, those spotters have gotten more attention as Congress prepares to debate an immigration legalization bill.



�Why don�t we take those people out?� said Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican.

Sen. Thomas R. Carper, Delaware Democrat, who chairs the SenateHomeland Security Committee, said he was shocked to learn of the spotters during a trip to the border earlier this year, saying that if U.S. troops had come across spotter locations in Iraq or Afghanistan, those sites would have been taken out.

Border Patrol Chief Michael J. Fisher said there�s a major difference between those war zones and the U.S.-Mexico border, where agents have to obey strict rules of engagement.

�The rules of engagement, what we call our �use of force,� applies to individuals on the street or whether they�re up on a mountaintop,� he told the Senate panel.

Chief Fisher said the agency had had some success in ousting �dozens� of spotters from mountaintops, but he couldn�t say how many more locations remains.

The mountaintop spotters have been a thorny problem for years.

SEE RELATED: Public doubts immigration overhaul will strengthen border: Poll

Two years ago, Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano engaged in a heated exchange over how many spotters there were. Mr. McCain said he had been told there were hundreds, while Ms. Napolitano replied that there were hundreds of peaks that could be used, but there weren�t hundreds of actual spotters.

�Look, they are there, and everyone knows they�re there, and for you and your staff to deny that they�re there is sort of symptomatic to me,� Mr. McCain said.

The Washington Times has visited well-camouflaged spotter locations in the Sonoran Desert National Monument 75 miles north of the border, with a view of Interstate 8, which runs from just south of Phoenix west to San Diego.

Officials told The Times that every potential smuggling corridor in Arizona is monitored by mountaintop spotters, who are usually low-level cartel employees or those who owe a debt to the cartel.

They are armed with radios and cellphones and occasionally with weapons, and are sometimes held responsible if the drug loads they are spotting for are interdicted by authorities.

I'm thinking a single 168 grain .308 would sort out those spotters

A not uncommon opinion, that.

GTC

Overkill. 22 hornet, 40 grain V-Max, and a case full of your favorite powder. In one ear and out the other.

Won't work when you're over 500yds...just sayin'

See them before they see you.

Ed

Will work at 400.

22BR will work way past 500.

I'm not into niceties.

155mm, HE.

I'd re-up a hitch as a Border Patrol Spotter if offered.

Not very subtle, but I like the way you think.

If the assclown's drones worked so well on thinning al qaeda why not introduce them to the cartel?

I'm losing interest in subtleties as well.

Now there's the idea of the year! How do we make sure they're NOT us citizens first so we don't kill US citizens on US soil without due process? With a drone?

While certainly inviting, killing them because they're spotters really isn't what this country's all about, is it?

I'm all for putting boots on the ground in OUR country, on OUR borders to preserve OUR way of life and liberty HERE.

Ed

With any luck, John Q. won't be shooting a drone coming in for pics.

Juan Q? Not sure.

In the end, a policy of confrontation that does have terminal efforts as a possibility is needed, but until politics is removed from the efforts, all the way around, objectivity in that process is a long time coming.

You are right about there needing to be swift, sure consequences.

As to the shooting of drones as they come in for pics, most of those drones operate at 8,000-10,000ft+ altitude. They don't need to come any closer.

I think RockyRaab's previous job would be ideal for this situation. Find a cartel spotter via FLIR or other intel, mark his position with smoke & GPS, and call in the cavalry. If Juan, Jose, or John engages with firearms, all bets are off and may God have mercy on their souls.

Ed

If the drones can read my license plate as I leave a gun store, then they sure as hell can tell the diff between Juan heading north with 50 kilos of weed on his back and John Q watering his livestock.

This country surely isn't about sovereign borders, or national security, or deterring crime, or enforcing immigration laws, or defending the constitution anymore.

Very true. Do we know that Juan deserves a death sentence for carrying weed into this country?

How about we just shoot everybody we find who uses illegal drugs? (insert sarcasm icon here)

No customers, no market, no smugglers, no problem.

I am one of the most virulent anti-drug people you will ever meet because I have seen the destruction, but that doesn't change the fact that we are a nation of laws, not a tribe of savages.

Put boots on the ground, give them the tools to work with INCLUDING a communication system that works and change the rules of engagement.

Ed

Yep, hire a few really GOOD snipers!

Lets change that weed to a drug resistant strain of tuberculosis, or a back pack nuke, or vial or weaponized small pox. You still OK with letting Juan walk on by?

In regards to policy on our borders, we are far too nice, in the original meaning, for that.

The origin of "nice":

I'm sure we will continue to be nice until it kills us.

I never said I was OK with Juan walking by, drugs, disease, nukes, or not.
Please read my posts. Put folks on the ground with the right tools and STOP Juan, OneHungLo, Muhammed Al Goatphucker, JungDumbass, and anyone else from coming across.

The rules of engagement HAVE to change if we're going to address this, but killing folks for just being there with no due process is wrong on SO many levels.

Ed

I could walk you to 2 sites south of Aravaca today. Found occupied coues deer hunting.