Fight for Human Freight

Moving with the cunning and cruelty of modern-day pirates, gangs of kidnappers are swooping down on Arizona highways, attacking smugglers transporting illegal immigrants and stealing their human cargo.

The kidnappers stash the immigrants in hundreds of drop houses scattered around this city, using violence and threats to extort money from their relatives.

Now, smuggling gangs are fighting back, shooting it out with kidnappers on sidewalks and freeways in broad daylight.

A gun battle last month between kidnappers and smugglers on Interstate 10 at the height of rush hour left four dead. Four others were killed this month in the desert near Phoenix; authorities blamed the deaths on violence between the two groups.

Kidnappers operate simply enough; they let smugglers take all the risks of getting immigrants into the country, then rob them once they get here. When they can’t intercept smugglers on the road, they snatch migrants from houses where they are known to be hiding.

The new wave of violence has made this the deadliest year in Phoenix history with 247 homicides, edging out the previous high of 245 in 2001. Police say 60% of the city’s crime is related to smuggling and kidnapping.

“It’s impacted the whole quality of life here,” said police spokesman Sgt. Randy Force.

The increased crime is largely a result of tighter border restrictions in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, officials say. California and Texas are now considered too tough to penetrate, so illegal immigrants are flooding across Arizona’s large, desert border. And the cost of the journey has skyrocketed from $200 to about $1,500. Immigrants are now considered as valuable as narcotics, and many kidnappers are former drug dealers.

The spiraling violence prompted the Department of Homeland Security last month to launch Operation Ice Storm, a massive campaign to regain control of the streets. Fifty new customs and immigration agents have come to Phoenix, the Border Patrol has stepped up activities along highways and criminal penalties for hostage-taking now include life in prison.

“Phoenix is [the] epicenter of illegal smuggling of people and contraband,” said Kyle Barnette, special agent in charge of the immigration and customs enforcement bureau in Phoenix. “And now these bandits are stealing each other’s loads.”

The victims are often sexually assaulted, pistol-whipped or tortured until their relatives come up with the ransom, about $1,800 for Mexicans and as high as $10,000 for South Americans. Kidnappers figure those who travel farther are more desperate and worth more money to waiting families. Federal agents say immigrants, including children, are often raped while kidnappers are on the phone with their family demanding money. Many children travel alone to meet their parents.

“They let the family hear what is going on; they let them listen while they rape their mother or daughter,” said Armando Garcia who heads the human smuggling division of the Phoenix immigration office. “It’s a whole new breed.”

In a recent case, kidnappers threatened to hack off the arm of a 9-year-old girl and send it to the family if they didn’t pay up. Authorities tracked the calls and raided the house where they found the girl cowering in a bathroom about to be raped. Another woman was sexually assaulted so often she screamed whenever a man came near.

“They realize there are hardships along the way,” said customs agent Angel Rascon. “But they don’t expect to be raped, extorted and kidnapped.”

The attacks have become ever more brazen.

The Interstate 10 shooting happened outside Casa Grande, near Phoenix. Kidnappers waited along the road for a van of illegal immigrants that informants said would be heading north. They spotted the vehicle, ran it off the road and forced the passengers into another van at gunpoint.

The smugglers, incensed over losing their cargo, called their boss in Phoenix, who dispatched a team armed with Chinese SKS assault rifles to find the kidnappers. When they saw the van on the highway, the smugglers opened fire, killing four people inside.

While most of the violence has been perpetrated by Mexicans nationals on other Mexicans, American Hispanics have been mistaken for illegal immigrants.

“Earlier this year a van pulled up beside a family driving to California on vacation,” said Force of the Phoenix police. “Guns were drawn, shots were fired. We believe the suspects were profiling the people in the van.” No one was seriously hurt.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was in Phoenix this month talking with the mayor and police chief about the situation.

“This is a federal issue; you can’t rely on local governments to sort this all out,” said Scott Phelps, spokesman for Mayor Skip Rimsza. “The feds need to step up and enforce their own laws. The Phoenix police are not an arm of the immigration service.”

Along with the carjackings, Phoenix has seen 300 home invasions this year, as heavily armed kidnap gangs storm houses they think are holding illegal immigrants. People who look like recent immigrants have been abducted from their frontyards.

“The immigrants are seen as vulnerable,” Force said. “They are reluctant to call the police for fear they will be deported.”

A customs agent with extensive experience in Latin America said the kidnappers are highly organized family members who number about 30 or 40 and work in 10- to 12-man cells. Many come from the city of Culiacan in Sinaloa, Mexico.

Using an intelligence network along the border, the gangs are alerted when a load of illegal immigrants is on the way.

“It’s a target-rich environment for them,” said the agent, who works undercover and asked not to be identified. “These gangsters see the coyotes as prey.”

Before leaving Mexico, migrants usually pay smugglers about $200 of the $1,500 tab up front. Their families pay the rest when the immigrant reaches Phoenix.

Agent Rascon figures there are at least 1,300 drop houses in the city where immigrants are being kept by smugglers awaiting their payment balance or held hostage by kidnappers demanding ransom.

Rascon leads a quick reaction force operating undercover from a nondescript building near downtown Phoenix. His office is covered in photographs of wanted kidnappers like the scowling Javier Avila Valedez, aka “El Negro.”

“He liked to dunk heads in scalding water,” Rascon said.

On this day, Rascon delayed raiding several homes so his team could tail a man who helped plan the Interstate 10 freeway attack, hoping he would lead them to senior gang leaders.

Three cars were stationed near the man’s home. Agents parked on a hill peered into the house with binoculars. A Chevrolet Blazer pulled out of the driveway; the agents followed but lost the car in traffic.

As their car wound through the warren of dark streets, it slowed past several squat, shabby homes with dozens of people standing in the doorways.

“Probably most of the houses here are drop houses,” an agent said.

Authorities have found up to 100 people crammed in a single room. Kidnapping victims are often bound head to toe in duct tape with only a tiny opening to breathe through.

Despite the perils, Arizona is seen as the easiest gateway to the U.S., though controls are tightening near border cities, pushing immigrants to cross farther out into the desert.

From 1999 to 2001, one of the busiest crossing points in the nation was Douglas, Ariz., where thousands of illegal immigrants hopped the fence daily.

The government reacted by boosting the number of border agents from 60 to 500. They erected a bigger fence, installed video monitors and built the country’s biggest Border Patrol station there.

“We were once catching 1,000 people a shift; now we catch 100,” said Thad Cleveland, supervisory agent with the Border Patrol in Douglas, about 200 miles southeast of Phoenix. “We have regained control of Douglas; where they go next I don’t know.”

In the desert outside of town, where empty water jugs litter both sides of the border, Cleveland bent down to examine a footprint.

“These people are just trying to make a better life for themselves,” he said of the immigrants. “It’s hard to believe this barbed-wire fence defines the difference between prosperity and poverty.”

And yet it does.

Across from Douglas sits Agua Prieta, Mexico, a dusty city of 110,000 people and the epicenter of the smuggling industry.

Smugglers, often called polleros, or chicken herders, cruise seedy hotels near the central bus station collecting would-be immigrants.

Spies for kidnapping gangs watch them.

There is no shortage of people willing to make the journey, people who feel that the consequences of staying put are worse than the dangers of leaving -- like Emiliano Zaldivar.

The 28-year-old cook emerged from a hotel near the city’s bus station recently and leaned against its whitewashed walls. His time had almost come. He was number six, and the smuggler was rounding up two more immigrants for the trip north.

“It’s really different here now, there is a lot of bad business going on,” he said, nervously scanning the windblown streets while avoiding eye contact with the unsmiling men lingering on the corner. “You are always looking behind you.”

Zaldivar was heading for Madison, Wis., where he once worked as a cook and hoped to do so again. He makes $4 a day in Mexico and had made about $6 an hour in America. The money supports his wife and four children living near Mexico City.

Several men glared at him, taking him aside at one point to ask what he was talking about.

A shaken Zaldivar retreated to the hotel patio.

“I am scared. All the time I am looking for a good life for my family. My wife used to say, ‘Why are you leaving?’ But I bought a house for my family, my kids go to school, they eat good food, and they have good clothes,” he said. “For this, people come to America.”