Disclaimer: I’ve changed a few tings in the following report to protect identities and opaque some of our tactics. I’ll probably separate this in multiple posts because of the pictures.

To the two AR15.com guys that have joined us on past trips I apologize for not calling you out on this one but things had been quiet and I didn’t want to waste your time.

My last couple trips down to Arizona to interdict the illegal’s and drug smugglers have been mostly quiet and that’s why I haven’t bothered to post a report in awhile. We had caught and harassed the drug/illegal haulers in the area plus Border patrol and even the Sheriffs Dept had done sweeps that hurt them. On my last trip in the spring we found a seriously dehydrated drug carrier (still had his booties) who was happy we found him and gladly accepted our food and water while he waited for the green and white taxi to take him back to Mexico



A few months back my buddy found a skull and turned it into BP who weren’t happy because it involved a lot of paperwork on their part.



It had a bullet hole in the lower left eye socket and a lager exit out the lower back of the skull so our best guess is he or she was on their knees and got it execution style from the front. The rest of the bones were gone scattered to the winds by critters and the elements. The desert is also hard on abandoned vehicles.

Abandoned haul rig left in wash. This Cherokee is now 50 feet further down the wash flipped over and crushed by the monsoon floods.



With all the new pressure on them the haulers had to change their tactics. Instead of just driving through all the time with pickup loads of illegal’s and drugs, they drop off people south of the fence where we cant work and have them walk around key choke points. They no longer stick to well beaten trails but send people through in two’s- three’s – fives and tell them to avoid any paths. They wear drug booties to hide their tracks.

It makes it real tough to catch them in this kind of terrain, almost like two ships running into each other in the fog. But it has to be a real pain in the ass for them to haul this way so there is a good side.



A little birdie from the south told us they were using trucks again so we staked out some likely roads/tracks for the first few days but didn’t have any contact. Just a bunch of random foot tracks and fresh garbage here and there. There were some nice sunsets and sunrises.



A bunch of A10’s, a couple F16’s and a four engine turbo prop cargo plane where doing low altitude maneuvers all week. We were harassed by bees (probably Africanized) at one of the stake out spots. One night we saw some serious UFO lights (the local paper said they were “candles in a bag” yeah right) that had us asking each other, “Did you see that?”. A bunch of coyotes were yelping at the edge of camp a couple nights. And we found the remains of one of the horses that wander the area. My buddy thinks the haulers use them to haul drugs but the jury is still out on that.



One of the first things I tell guys that come down to help us is to keep yourself and your gear ready to go because when things happen you usually don’t get much if any warning. And that’s the way it happened this time. Carl and I were staking out a crossroads late in the afternoon. It was quiet all week. Very quiet. No sensors chirped. Our spotter was ready to go home to do something more interesting like watch the grass grow. Me and Carl were sharing our favorite pizza topping choice or something when..

Then all at once we knew someone or thing was off in the brush across the road. Carl moved to investigate but before he took ten steps I heard a truck door slam and a voice a hundred yards to the south. I slung my rifle and hopped on my ATV. When I looked up from starting the ATV a truck with a bunch of heads sticking up above the cab was visible through the brush a hundred yards to the south. I don’t think they saw me but they definitely saw Carl and knew the jig was up. I yelled to Carl that we were in business. I heard them peel away and followed their dust cloud back to the south. The dust cloud disappeared but I followed the skidding left hand turn tracks as the truck left the road to ride through the open dessert. The truck was stopped a couple hundred yards ahead and two(?) guys had jumped out of the back with packs. The truck peeled out and headed north around our stakeout and I followed ignoring the guys with packs. Always stay with the biggest game. The guys with packs might have had drugs or might have been busted before and didn’t like their chances in the truck. Either way they must have been somebody because the usual haul driver doesn’t give a **** about regular illegal’s and they would have had to jump from a moving vehicle.

A side note on chasing trucks with an ATV. These haulers are driving vehicles they bought cheap at auctions or stole. Take the highest speed you would ever drive your own 4X4 on rough terrain and triple it. The good news is although I was pushing my ATV faster then I wanted; I could avoid a lot of heavy brush that they had to bash through and could quickly slow down and speed up after washes that they plowed into and out of. The bad thing about an ATV is that if a car offers you little protection against gunfire, an ATV gives you none. So it’s good to stay back a hundred yards or so and wait for them to wreck or disable the vehicle. Also you have to watch for them turning around and coming after you.

Usually a truck going balls to the wall on a rough 4X4 road or especially through the open desert doesn’t last long. I expected them tear off a tire, wreck the driveline, or nosedive into a deep wash within a few hundred yards. The guy tore through a barbed wire fence and across a dirt road.

He probably had serious tunnel vision because he would have had a little better chance losing me on the road but instead he plowed on north and didn’t turn for anything. I lost sight of him but followed easily by his tracks, dust and sound. He crossed another dirt road and didn’t take that one either. He was a man on a mission to go north. Despite the danger and stress, I actually laughed out loud about how far he had gotten through some nasty terrain.

The chase ended 200 yards past the road.



When I saw they had crashed I stopped the ATV about a hundred yards back, pocketed the ATV key , and checked my 3-9 and 6 o’clock to make sure nobody was moving on me. Looking through the window on my EOTech as I do a few times a day I saw.. nothing. I hit the up arrow a few times and checked again. Nothing. I popped up the BUIS. As I advanced on the wrecked Chevy sweeping side to side my brain was adding up the hours I had on the fresh battery since I arriving in AZ. “100 hours on a supposed 300 hour battery life and this mo****f***er not only dies early but dies just when I need it!” Another plus for the Aimpoint comp. I love the reticle on the EOtech and it’s beautiful in front of  Gen3 NV, but there’s enough stuff to worry about down here without having the optic you depend on crapping out at the wrong time.

They hit an old 6 foot deep man made vertical walled pit semi hard. Enough to end it for the poor Chevy.





If you look closely at the windshield there are spider web impacts where the driver and front passenger hit the windshield.



Although I was only 30 seconds behind the truck, everybody had bailed out into the brush to the north (strait ahead of the truck). As I cleared the truck, I could hear them off a couple hundred yards arguing about which way they would go. The back bed not only had the small packs that an illegal would carry but a few larger ones that might have drugs. I got on the radio and called my buddy back at the stake out. No response. No cell signal and he had the only communication gear to reach BP.

Option 1: I could hop on the ATV and chase the group but they would probably scatter plus nobody knew where I was so if things went bad I’d be SOL.

Option 2: Take the bundles that look like drugs back to the stake out. I didn’t have the room and if Carl had called LEO’s and I ran into them on the way back it might be something a federal prosecutor could nail me to the wall for.

Option 3: Pull the bags out of the truck and torch them. If I was really out in the boonies where LE could not be contacted or wouldn’t show up then I probably would have done this. But we have a good record of busts so I knew if we made the call, BP would probably be there within an hour in force.

Sidenote: Border Patrol and some of the other federal state and local agencies have really stepped up their game over the 7 years I’ve been down to the border. If I didn’t think they would show then torching the packs may have happened

I took option 4 which was to high tail it back to the stake out (only a mile away) where we could call BP. When I took off after the truck, Carl was investigating what was on the other side of the road plus he didn’t know about the two guys with backpacks that had jumped out about 4 hundred yards from him so it was good to see he didn’t have any new holes in him. I called BP, told them what had happened and gave them our location and then headed back to the truck. As I feared, they had come back and picked up some of the big packs. It wasn’t that bad. I could still hear them off in the distance arguing with each other as they moved off to the north along the mountains. Night set in.




The first two BP guys rolled up 45 minutes after the call. I gave them the direction of the group and they vectored people in for the catch with IR and the rest of their goodies. We were about 8 miles south of the highway so these haulers were probably screwed. In the past I’ve tracked with some BP agents but these guys obviously had all the manpower they needed so I bid them a farewell. They said thanks and one BP guy pointed at my AR and said, “keep carrying that while you’re around here.” (like I needed to be told that)  They didn’t care about the two guys that jumped out of the truck next to our stakeout so after I got back I tried to track them but nothing came of that. I forgot to give the BP agent my number so they could call me afterword with a catch total but we saw them coming and going most of the night so I’m guessing we turned them on to a decent amount of action.

In the morning the truck and all the scattered debris had been hauled out. We scouted around a little and then cleared out.  

Answers to the usual questions/comments.

1. Everything we’re doing is legal and 99% of federal LE and 90% of local LE like us being there.
     
2. Yes we are well armed.

3. Yes, I know I’m lucky you’re not one of the bad guys because you would surly kill us all and take our gear.

4. It’s true that some untrained and careless citizens can interfere with LE on the border. But if you know what you’re doing you can do a lot of good and LE appreciates you being there.

5. Yes, we are looking for people to help us. Here are some basic guidelines if you are interested in joining us.

a. What we do is kind of like a Robert Young Pelton 4X4/camping/hiking trip. But bad things can happen and we can not guarantee your safety so if anyone is going to be totally SOL if you are no longer breathing then you should pass. Don’t expect to show up and have an instant catch. I estimate you will spend about 5-6 days per apprehension (maybe every 3 days for excitement) on the border. One of the best reasons to do this is to give you a realistic evaluation of not only your gear, but of yourself.  

b. Bring your brain and leave your ego at home. One of the reasons I stay away from big border groups is that I don’t like having careless people aim guns at me. I also don’t want to spend a week listening to somebody brag about how many chicks they’ve bagged, people they’ve killed, ass they kicked, pounds they bench, guns they own ect. Whether you’re a SEAL or a UPS driver, be ready to work with others or stay home.

c. Have some basic stuff. Good boots that you have worn before you show up. A real 4X4 vehicle that you’re not afraid to get scratched up from brush. An ATV would be nice. A VHF radio and GPS. Ability to camp outdoors in hot to subfreezing temps. Be able to feed yourself for 5 or so days in the bush.

d. If you live in Utah, Colorado, NM AZ or So Cal/NV then you are especially welcome to join us if you’re willing to do a day’s drive to the border.

If you are interested, please PM me for more information

Nice work OP.

Sorry I didn't call you guys but what can I say.. It had been real quiet then bang.

And not a racist comment in the whole write-up.  Appreciate what you do, OP, and I also appreciate your attitude.

Wow! Were you guys East or West of the TO rez?

Protecting our borders has nothing to do with xenophobia. But it has everything to do with helping to protect our country.

Excellent article!  Very good reading.  This all goes to show you that the federal government does not have control of this nation’s borders.  Hence, we do not really know who or what is in this country.  If illegal immigrants and drugs are flowing across the borders unchecked, why not then terrorists and weapons of mass destruction?

The next 9/11 will be from people that the federal government just let in either via this country’s front door or back door.   Of course, the feds will blame us!  

Right on guy. It's a sad state of affairs when our Department of Defense is out defending other countries, and the slack at our borders needs to be taken up by citizens.

Wow, very interesting.The media gives civies a bad rep for protecting the boarder, but good job OP. Tag for more later.

Good to see that you're back in action, it's been a while since we've heard from you.

"And not a racist comment in the whole write-up. Appreciate what you do, OP, and I also appreciate your attitude."

If I was in their shoes I would likely be trying to get into the US too. I don't even hate the drug smugglers. These guys have a choice. Live in poverty in a dirt floor shack, work in a sweat shop factory for $1.50 an hour, or haul drugs and make big money.

They're doing a better job all the time and from what I've heard, it aint nearly the free for all it was back in the late 90's-early 2000's. We have to look to find spots where we won't be in LE way. It's not just BP but BLM and the local Sheriffs Dept's (once they realized how much $$ there was in seizures). BLM cops here in Utah carry guns but are more like park rangers. We ran into some BLM guys in the Vekol Valley dressed up like they were going into Fallujah. The feds are all linked up with the same database too. We got pulled over by a BLM cop in a bad area once as soon as we rolled in. He already knew who we were and what we were doing before he got out of his rig. He was cool and flat out said, "We won't be in this area again until XXXXX time so it will just be you and the bad guys." He gave us a card to call them if we got something because, as I said, they all want those seizures. The only feds that are still doing the see/hear/speak no evil are Dept of Interior agencies like NPS and US Fish and Wildlife.

I wasn't there for this one but the guys spotted haulers on foot crossing I-8 in broad daylight. When they chased them one of the haulers started cooking off 40 cal rounds to keep them back. They never caught the guy but got some of the drugs. LEO in the picture is BLM.

Ah, we were East, or maybe it was West. We'll be on the other side next time though or maybe down near Nogales where the good times allways roll.

I'm a retired LEO, have one son and a son-in-law in the Border Patrol and my youngest is overseas in the USMC. I just want to say thank you for taking the time out of your life to do what you're doing down on the border! If more citizens of this great country would take HALF the initiative you have in doing what you do this country would have a LOT less problems! Carry on!

Made contact several times earlier this year, without trying, in the Huachucas. High traffic area.

Thanks. The worst I’ve gotten from a couple BP agents is ambivalence and those guys just reeked of “putting in time to retirement”. Some border guys have had hostile encounters with SO deputies but they rarely get back in the areas we work. The one Sheriff’s deputy I talked to got shot because he came out of concealment to confront a drug hauler escort because he wanted to give the guy a chance to surrender. People don’t appreciate the hardships BP agents and regular cops and military go through. It’s not so much the danger as it is the chaos and stress it causes in your life. They have to pick up and move when they get transferred and they are out watching a trail on Christmas Eve while the rest of America sleeps. Years ago I went on a few ride-a-longs with my neighbor who was trying to get me to apply to the local SO. It took about two days of seeing his job for me to say, “**** that” I haven’t seen a recent divorce rate for LEO’s but I know it’s high. I don’t get paid but can pick up and go home when I feel like it.

As one BP agent said to me, “It’s nice to see people care about what’s going on down here”. All the best to you and your sons.    

About 5 years ago we did a drive from Coronado NM west along the border through the drug town of Lochiel and the Patagonia Mountains and saw no LE the entire trip.

This is the United States/Mexican border along the route.


You could actually see the foot trails coming out of Mexico up to the barbed wire fence. A year back we worked with some guys that staked out the area around Lochiel not realizing half (or more) of the people that live there are involved in the drug trade. 10 minutes after they rolled into town the bad guys all knew they wre there and I was happy they left before the cartel people came across and lit them up. I’d like to work that area in a more circumspect way but there’s no contact with LE and we just don’t have the people.

Outside of Lochiel.

Beautiful, and very familiar country.
Sasabe is very much like Lochiel in that regard.

Good work, highdesertutah. It's always good to hear about law enforcement appreciating help from regular citizens.



This is a helluva argument for always keeping BUIS on your rifle.

I never roll out without my road buddy, with a zeroed ACOG and a zeroed Matech.

I might be interested in making the trip sometime. It would give a friend and I some time to test new equipment and contribute.

When are you coming down again and what area will you be patrolling?  I'm not too far from Three Points and hunt in 36 A, B, and C.  I might be interested in lending a helping hand if your trip works with my schedule.

Posted by MadMonkey:
"I might be interested in making the trip sometime. It would give a friend and I some time to test new equipment and contribute."

IM's sent

Its a hell of an argument for not using EOTechs. I wish this was the first time I'd seen this go down, including my *3* failures.

Also true, and there's a reason that none of my personal firearms have EOTechs on them.

Nice job and great pictures, hope you post more!



However all I could think of with that truck was "damn, I need that driver's side tail light"

would you mind PMing me some info as well. Im an LEO in VA but this definitely sparks my interest.

I can't recall if I've posted in one of your threads before, but I'm interested in possibly helping out. I could possibly bring a handful of relatively well qualified and experienced people to help out. Send me an IM when you start planning ops for this fall?

"would you mind PMing me some info as well. Im an LEO in VA but this definitely sparks my interest"

IM's sent.