Mexican drug cartel threatens Nogales Police
Mexican drug cartel threatens Nogales Police
By Barbara Grijalva
Nogales, AZ (KOLD) - Police in Nogales, Arizona, are taking extra precautions, but they are not backing down after a Mexican drug cartel threatened officers.
The Nogales police chief says there have been 126 drug trafficking-related murders in Nogales, Sonora, so far this year.
That sort of violence is now threatening to come across the border into Nogales, Arizona, a city that hasn't seen a homicide in three years.
It was about two-and-half-weeks ago that two off-duty Nogales police officers were riding horses in the hills east of the city, near the Mexico border.
They spotted what they believed to be drug smugglers.
Nogales Police Chief Jeffrey Kirkham takes the story from there: "They went ahead and attempted and did seize a vehicle with approximately 400 pounds of marijuana in it."
The suspects ran back into Mexico.
Soon after, Nogales police heard something ominous through their informants.
Mexican drug traffickers were issuing a threat.
"Specifically, those officers who are off-duty are not to be doing any type of interdiction that they see when a crime's committed, but rather look the other way, or they would be targets," Kirkham says.
The uneasiness goes beyond the police department, and into the neighborhoods.
A Nogales resident who wanted to be identified only as Bruce says, "All the violence on the border that really haven't felt that here. But now it's starting to encroach on Nogales."
Nogales resident Yvette Montoya says, "It's a fear for everyone in the community because if they're already threatening our police department, what makes us so sure that they're not going to come after us citizens."
The police chief says his force will do it's job.
"Number one, we're not going to be intimidated. And number two, that we're going to continue with our interdiction operations and we are going to seize any narcotics that come across the border," Kirkham says.
He adds, "It does change some of their habits for the better, that they should be cautious and they should be aware of their surroundings and even to the point where they look to see, on the high ground on the Mexican side of the border, who might be watching them."
Kirkham says he now wants his off-duty officers armed when they are in places that could be dangerous.
Officers on the street are proud of what happened in the desert.
Senior Officer Oscar Rosas says, "I'm glad they did what they had to do because somehow or another, it affects the people who are on patrol."
The Nogales Police Department could get some help in its crime fighting efforts, from the Tohono O'odham Nation.
Right now the officers are in cramped quarters.
The department hopes to apply for a $3.1 million grant from the Tohono O'odham Nation for a modern, new building to house its offices, evidence, records and more.
The police chief says it would be a good partnership.
"Anything that has that presence and that facility here will also impact crime and issues that happen on the Indian Nation because we have those smuggling issues that do go across from the border through the Indian reservation," Kirkham says.
If everything is approved, Nogales P. D. hopes to have a new building that is more than three times larger than what it has now.
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