Agents bust mountainside cartel scout camps NW of Tucson

A reconnaissance flight near Arizona City led to the discovery and raid of a suspected drug cartel scout campsite, one of two such busts in the past few weeks.

Agents with the Border Patrol’s tactical unit then “fast-roped” from a Black Hawk helicopter onto a mountaintop in the Silver Bell mountain range northwest of Tucson, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Wednesday.

After a foot chase that ended about 30 feet from a cliff with a “dangerous and potentially fatal drop to jagged rocks below,” agents arrested the two suspected scouts who were working out of a mountainside cave on May 20. Cartel scouts are tasked with guiding drug and human smugglers from the border to their next destination. In many cases, they spend weeks at observation posts on hilltops or mountainsides.

The raid resulted in one suspect facing federal criminal charges and the seizure of “a large cache of counter-surveillance equipment,” CBP said in Wednesday’s news release.

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On May 29, Border Patrol agents arrested two suspected scouts in the Sawtooth Mountain Range near Casa Grande at an observation post. Agents seized four solar panels, two pairs of binoculars, eight cell phones, two radios, and two radio chargers, CBP said earlier.Both of the suspects are Mexican nationals and were charged with conspiracy to smuggle contraband. One also was charged with assault on a federal officer after struggling with an agent. The suspect was subdued with pepper spray, CBP said. The incident was the third assault on an agent by a suspected scout since April 1.

Instead of being charged with drug smuggling, scouts are often charged with conspiracy because they do not possess drugs when they are arrested.

Until a March 2015 federal court case in Arizona opened the door to prosecuting scouts despite them not having drugs at the time of arrest, the Border Patrol had never seen a scout case successfully prosecuted, the agency said.

Since then, Tucson Sector agents have arrested 61 scouts from mountaintops, including 54 who were convicted on federal conspiracy charges, the agency said. The other seven are either pending criminal charges or were deported.