Feds to Sheriff Babeu: assassin warning was not valid
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Oct 15, 2010
kgun9.com
FLORENCE, Ariz. (KGUN9-TV) - Should Pinal County residents be concerned about the possibility of drug assassins invading the Vekol Valley? Yes, says Sheriff Paul Babeu. No, says the Department of Homeland Security.
Who's right?
The public disagreement is the latest strange twist in the ongoing battle over border security in Arizona.
The current spat started with a press release that the sheriff's office sent out early Friday morning. In the release, Babeu said that in May the Department of Homeland Security informed several law enforcement agencies that assassins could be on their way to Pinal County's Vekol Valley. According to the sheriff, DHS based its warning on intelligence from a "proven credible confidential source," who told them that a cartel had decided to ambush bandits stealing from cartel smugglers in Arizona.
According to the advisory, the source warned that members of the Guzman cartel, meeting in Rocky Point, Mexico, had formed a two-step plan to lure the bandits into an ambush. Step one called for sending fifteen armed operatives wearing bullet-proof vests into the Vekol Valley. Those operatives would go in on foot, taking four days to get into position.
Once those assassins were in place, according to Babeu, the plan called for cartel members in Rocky Point to send "groups of simulated backpackers carrying empty boxes covered with burlap" into the valley to draw out the bandits. "Once the bandits have been identified, the (operatives) will take out the bandits," the release said.
Because the advisory was deemed to be a sensitive law enforcement matter, Babeu's office sat on it. But Babeu said he decided to make the warning public after a news agency contacted him on Wednesday, saying it had confirmed the information in the DHS e-mail.
In an interview with KGUN9's Jessica Chapin on Friday, Babeu predicted that since he is now talking about the advisory, DHS would probably repudiate the memo. "These are the people who have put this out, and have said it," Babeu said. "Now watch. They'll probably back off from it."
Those words were prophetic. When later contacted by 9 On Your Side reporter Jessica Chapin, a DHS spokesman discredited that e-mail.
Matthew Chandler, a spokesman with DHS's Media Relations office in Washington, admitted to Chapin that DHS sent out the advisory in May. But in an e-mail to her, he wrote, "This particular information proved to be inaccurate. At this time, DHS does not have any specific, credible information on intra-cartel violence taking place in Arizona."
When Chapin relayed that response to Babeu's public information officer, Tim Gaffney, Gaffney was incensed. The fact that the Pinal County Sheriff's office had to hear about DHS's disavowal third hand, through KGUN9 News, clearly did not sit well with him.
In response, Gaffney fired off a challenge to Chandler by e-mail. It read in part, "Can you please explain to me how the Department of Homeland Security can say that the information was 'proved to be inaccurate?' The intelligence information disseminated by your office was correct regarding the Deputy Puroll shooting and four weeks later we had two illegal immigrants murdered in this same area described in the email where they said it would take place. One of the illegal immigrants was armed with an assault rifle."
Gaffney also pointed out to Chandler that over the past several weeks, officers have found several spotters, as also predicted in DHS's May advisory. As Friday evening, Gaffney still had not received a response.
The Vekol Valley is the same place where Pinal County Deputy Louie Puroll was wounded on April 30. Puroll reported that he had been following suspected drug smugglers when they spotted him and started shooting.
Some media critics attacked that story, quoting forensics experts as saying Puroll's account was unlikely. But a DPS gunshot residue test backed Puroll's version of events.
In the Friday press release, Babeu pointed out that the DHS memo also backed Puroll's story, and quoted this passage from it: "... we received information from a source who reported that the scouts in the valley (the Cartel has 23 scout locations with rolling encryption) were reporting that bandits had shot two sheriff's deputies and the area was covered by cops."
In his statement to the media Friday, Babeu made a plea to Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano to make good on her promise to secure Arizona's border "or give us the resources we need so we can protect our Arizona families."
Earlier this week, Babeu asked Pinal County supervisors to release money to his department to pay for increased staffing, to create a team to develop intelligence aimed at protecting residents from drug traffickers in the county. One of the sheriff's goals is to track down and remove drug spotters that now help smugglers keep a lookout for patrols. Law enforcement officials arrested one such spotter last month.
The sheriff's anti-smuggling presentation received a lukewarm response from some supervisors, who stressed that they have other budget priorities.
Babeu and some other border-area sheriffs have also been waging a months-long campaign to get the federal government to do more to secure the border.
In light of Sheriff Babeu's persistent attacks on the Obama administration over border security and illegal immigration issues, it's perhaps unsurprising that DHS has been slow to return the sheriff's calls. Earlier this year KGUN9 News documented a similar slow response by the Obama administration to Republican governor Jan Brewer's repeated calls for better border security.
In releasing releasing the DHS memo this morning, Sheriff Babeu said he was doing so "in an effort to inform the public about the dangers associated with drug cartels operating in Pinal County."
In his response to KGUN9 News, the DHS's Chandler did not deny the cartels pose a danger. But like Babeu, Chandler also used the opportunity to score some political points, writing, "Over the past twenty months, this Administration has dedicated unprecedented manpower, technology and infrastructure to the Southwest border. In addition to remaining in close contact with law enforcement on the ground, over the past several months, we have added personnel and assets to Arizona to assist other federal, state, and local partners to keep our communities safe."
But Babeu told KGUN9 News, the main response he's seen from the feds so far is to put up signs warning Americans that the area is dangerous. "How about instead of putting up signs, how about coming in and removing and addressing the threat?" |
