Illegal Immigration and Smuggling on the Tohono O'odham Reservation of Arizona: Opportunities for Applied Intelligence Training

Smugglers who operate along the border spread terror by killing police, reporters, officials, and members of rival organized crime units.1 In border cities such as Agua Prieta and Naco, Sonora, increasingly violent acts against police and other officials now make it difficult for Mexico to recruit people to serve in law enforcement. Since December of 2006, more than 5,000 Mexican citizens (including many public officials) have been killed in drugrelated violence.2 In addition to the tumult that organized crime brings to the region, gang members and smugglers also effectively bribe and intimidate people on both sides of the border. In 1853, none who signed the Gadsden Treaty could have foreseen the wave of violence and crime that now characterizes life on the border. Because they had nothing to do with creating the border in the first place, the Tohono O'odham have historically regarded it with ambivalence.