Smuggling on the Mexico Border Today

Smuggling on the Mexico border today
Undocumented aliens and illegal drugs smuggled into U.S.A. 01 January 2001
San Diego, CA
Jacumba, California, USA - Remote backcountry high-desert area at 3,400 feet elevation and 66 miles east of San Diego, CA, where backpack carrying illegal aliens cross the border at about 3 AM each night on foot. In the early morning darkness groups of individuals hike in single file through the boulders and cactus. The behavior I observed indicates they may sometimes carry illegal drugs, though I've not personally seen any drugs. I have seen groups wearing backpacks transporting something. Terraserver satellite image of area.
My horse camp is east of Jacumba, CA, at the base on the east side of Jade Mesa in O'Neill valley. I lived here with my Mustang horse and Labrador dog from October 2, 1995 until December 5, 1995. I've hunted lost cattle in the Jacumba area, and I've been a ranch foreman, caretaker, and ranch hand in Colorado and Southern California. I've backpacked, hiked, and ridden on horseback this border area for over 20 years.
I stayed in my trailer on the ranch property in O'Neill valley near Jacumba, CA, as a caretaker to prevent illegal trash dumping and illegal shooting. I've camped here for years. I have Mr. Lawrence Van Dusen's (the owner - Escondido, CA) permission to be on this private 420 acre ranch, which is next to the public Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Table Mountain Recreation Area, the public BLM Jacumba Outstanding Natural Area Valley of the Moon, and other private ranch property to the south, east, and west. The U.S.- Mexico border is 1 1/2 miles south of my camp.
Jade Mesa (Jade 3587' elevation) is an excellent observation point in O'Neill valley, and I rode my horse up there during the day for the good grazing grass, the beautiful view, the cooler breezes, and at night to observe the smuggling activity, after I became aware of it. The daytime temperature is sometimes more than 100 degrees here in October.
I intended to keep a log of illegal shooters and trash dumpers for Mr. Van Dusen on his property, but soon discarded that idea because of all the vehicle plate number discrepancies. This is about the time I became aware of how much smuggling was going on in the O'Neill valley area.
Illegal alien backpacked cargo appears to be being delivered to waiting vehicles. Cargo deliveries may be made in the early morning darkness to RV and 4 WD vehicles camped or parked within a few miles of the border. Many had altered license plates, out of state plates, or none at all.
A signaling system of using campfires may be one identification method used to designate delivery sites. Road flares are definitely another method. A large pile of 20 or more fresh smelling spent shotgun shells is another. Sand filled soda bottles and soda cans placed on the ground to mark the trail leading to the pick up vehicle is another. Indian trail sign such as rock ducks is another.
The illegal aliens appear to be picked up near I-8 water tank #28 by tractor trailer semi-trucks and other vehicles on Interstate Highway 8 in the United States. Or, the illegals. or only some of them, may continue north on foot to be picked up in the Blair valley and Carrizo creek areas of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (ABDSP).
It is remarkable that no illegal aliens have been killed or injured near the I-8 water tank #28, as they must climb down a steep 50 foot cliff from a rock ledge into Boulder creek dry wash for their vehicle pickup or to continue with their journey north.
Tractor trailer trucks are sometimes stopped, but not often inspected, at the U.S. Border Patrol Highway Checkpoint on I-8 near Pine Valley, CA. A California Highway Patrolman verified this, and they are involved at this checkpoint too. I'm told the new NAFTA rules prohibit cargo inspections of these vehicles after they leave the U.S. Port of Entry.
I observed a particular semi-truck heading west toward San Diego on I-8 at about 5 AM almost every morning for two months, sometimes with the rear hydraulic ramp still lowered and being slowly raised, as it passed the I-8 Brake Check area, which is about 1/4 mile north of my Horse Camp and about 1 mile west of water tank #28. This truck always went by soon after a large number of illegal aliens coming from the border passed my camp.
I called the Temecula U.S. Border Patrol Checkpoint and informed them of its possible cargo, because I calculated it would already pass the Pine Valley checkpoint before I could contact them, or it would bypass the checkpoint entirely by using Kitchen creek Road.
On one occasion the white conventional cab semi-truck was escorted by a wrecker truck and a radio equipped stretch limousine. These vehicles joined the semi truck as it crossed the Boulevard overcrossing on I-8, and the wrecker truck and limousine pulled in behind the semi from Highway 80 from the direction of Jacumba.
"Approximately two-thirds of the cocaine available in the United States comes over the U.S.- Mexico border... from the 1930s to the 1960s, Mexico supplied as much as 95 percent of the marijuana consumed in the U.S. market. During the 1970s, when the Mexican Government sprayed its marijuana fields with paraquat, a herbicide, Colombia became the dominant producer for the U.S. market. With the end of the paraquat program, Mexico eventually regained its dominance in the U.S. market..."- Traffickers from Mexico, U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, July 2001. "90 percent of the meth (methamphetamine) manufactured in this country is manufactured by Mexican national (Mexican non-U.S citizen) drug organizations,"- Ron Gravitt, California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement's clandestine lab unit chief, Oct 2000, Sacramento Bee Special Report. "Methamphetamine cases today account for 80% of the nation's police departments' drug investigations."- DEA Report 1996.
"In 1996, about 900,000 U.S.-bound trucks were subjected to a full drug inspection -- one quarter of all the trucks entering the U.S. This marked a substantial increase in the percentage of inspections carried out over past years. However, despite this magnificent effort by the women and men of the Customs Service, cocaine was found in just sixteen of these vehicles."... Barry R. McCaffrey, Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, August 26, 1998.
"In 1997, officials inspected 1.09 million of the 3.54 million commercial trucks and rail cars that crossed into the United States from Mexico. Cocaine was found in the cargo only six times."... Deputy National (ONDCP) Drug Czar Tom Umberg, San Diego, CA, October 1, 1998.
Is it possible that the Mexican drug cartels 'mule' the cocaine across the border on the backs of illegal aliens on foot, then load it into semi-trucks and other vehicles near the border on the U.S. side?... a 2001 version of the Ho Chi Minh Trail used so successfully by the enemy communists during the Vietnam War.
Three flare gun and radio equipped camouflaged observers climb into the surrounding mountains east of O'Neill valley each night. Low sound, low intensity flares are fired almost every night by, I assume, these same spotters as some kind of signal. They drove a gold colored 4 WD Nissan NX mini pickup (CA license 2U93249) with a white camper shell and equipped with a 2 way radio. It was out here almost every day or night. I checked the vehicle plate number and it did not match the vehicle description.
Many of the shooters, campers, and RVers in O'Neill valley are armed with full automatic and semiautomatic assault rifles, high powered hand guns, and semiautomatic riot or short barreled 12 gauge shotguns. I observed all of these. I found used hand grenade levers and a used smoke grenade at one campsite.
While on horseback, I was threatened on two different occasions by shooters when a pistol gripped semiautomatic riot shotgun was pointed directly at me from about 20 feet while I was trash checking these groups.
On Saturday, November 18, 1995, I heard full automatic rifle fire (sounded like .223 cal. M16) in O'Neill valley. A white Chevrolet Suburban 4WD with a DoD. sticker (Department of Defense) in the front windshield and CA license number 3HHJ924 was parked on our property near where I heard the shooting in a very high, remote, and hidden location just south of Nopal mountain and near where the automatic weapons fire was coming from. I didn't see anyone near the Suburban or firing the weapons, but I cautiously rode my horse close enough to get the plate number.
It is not unusual to hear full automatic AK47 or SKS rifle fire in O'Neill valley today. I began to question whether I should approach these groups of armed strangers. And as a U.S. Army veteran, I know full automatic rifle fire when I hear it.
Some groups I didn't approach. Such as those wearing gang-like black baggy clothing or those shooting semiautomatic riot type shotguns, full automatic assault rifles, or machine guns. On one occasion I saw a man riding a 3 wheeler and carrying a sawed off shotgun. Though this may have been for his protection from the pack of about 8 pit bull dogs allowed to run wild by the guy living in the trailer one mile west near Airport Hill.
A number of shooter groups were ethnically mixed with a couple Latino males, a couple White males, and a couple Black females, and all of them young in their late teens or early twenties, shooting mostly 12 ga. shotguns, 9 mm pistols, and AK 47s, SKSs, or other guns, and almost always with an older adult White couple in the group. Some wore black baggy clothing which I thought to be a bit odd in the 90 degree heat of the high desert. I almost always wear white long sleeve shirts and bull-hide chaps on horseback, but not black colored cloths because they're too hot in this desert sun.
Other groups were White middle aged males from San Diego who seemed friendly and usually told me they had concealed weapons permits. But, when I asked them if they'd shot at the range in the San Diego Courthouse basement, their reply was always "No." (A requirement to obtain a concealed weapons permit in San Diego County). And concealed weapons permits in California are only valid in the county of issue. And the ranch is in San Diego county.
On one occasion one guy in a mixed group almost ran over my horse and me on a 4 WD trail with his purple 4 WD Toyota pickup with a chrome roll bar and chrome wheels as he sped from the border at about 50 MPH on a very rough desert road leading north to highway 80. When I asked the rest of his heavily armed group if he had some kind of emergency, they replied that he was "upset."
After I saw a number of other 4 WD trucks do the same thing in the following weeks, I finally concluded that they were running drugs or other contraband from the border.
One day I watched from the top of Jade Mesa as a new red 4 WD mini pickup outran a U.S. Border Patrol 4 WD vehicle on the rough back roads in O'Neill valley as he made his run from the border. Then he hid his truck in the bottom of a dry wash until the BP Agent gave up looking and left the area, and then this red 4 WD pickup met with 6 other vehicles a mile away near Airport hill. Then after a brief 5 minute discussion and huddle in the middle of Highway 80, they all sped off in different directions. This was at about 1 PM in the afternoon, and this incident can be verified with Agent Webster of the El Centro Border Patrol whom I was in cell-phone contact with at the time.
Another young white male driving a small compact car with no license plate on the front (only end I could see) and loaded with youths rapidly backed his vehicle almost a half mile back to the highway after seeing me on horseback. To keep me from seeing his rear plate number?
I don't know the significance of it, but I noticed that many of the older white male and female campers and shooters seemed to have a grayish pall to their facial complexions or very bloodshot eyes. I became more wary as I observed these and other suspicious things. But almost everyone likes a horse, and almost all of them were reasonably friendly to me.
Besides my eyes were getting bloodshot too from lack of sleep caused by all the night time activities of the campers and RVers driving up and down the border roads all night long. And from the illegals sneaking across the border keeping me awake. I really have pity for anyone who owns land on this border today and who enjoys sleeping at night.
I was always very polite when I did shooter and trash checking on horseback. I informed them that they may continue to shoot today, but that it's illegal on this private property, and to please not come back here again to shoot, but that they may still camp on the property anytime, if they leave no trash, and do no other damage. And that open campfires are not legal in San Diego County because of the fire hazard. These were Mr. Van Dusen's instructions regarding shooters and campers on his property.
There was a small 2 acre wildfire near here in November at Smuggler's Cave on the BLM land that the White Star CDF (CA Department of Forestry) Station extinguished. Most likely it was started by the campers, the shooters, the 'Coyotes' (two legged smuggling variety also called 'Polleros'), or the illegals. There has since been another very large fire in 1997.
On Veteran's Day weekend 1995, we heard shots from the U.S. side of the border, while I was leading a large group of about 35 horse people from the Pine Valley Mountain Riders trail riding club from Pine Valley, CA along a scenic trail on our private property. We had just ridden trails most of the day in the public BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Jacumba Outstanding Natural Area Valley of the Moon, and I was leading them back to their base camp down a steep scenic trail on our property.
About 15 shots were fired from O'Neill valley below us, with some ricocheting off the rocks around us, frightening both riders and horses, and it's really lucky that no one was injured, as this occurred on a very steep, treacherous, section of trail. I reported this incident to the BLM Ranger Walt Gabler from the El Centro BLM Office. And I also informed the Border Patrol and the BLM that shooting was illegal on this property. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department had not replied to my earlier requests, so I didn't call them again.
I may have been shot at other times while riding alone in the O'Neill valley area, but not before about 1994. Either these are stray shots, threatening shots, or shots from a very poor aiming shooter.
These pick up vehicles are also located in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in the Carrizo creek and Blair valley areas and at the private RV Campgrounds nearby. Again, posing as campers and RVers. I observed altered plates here too, though I believe some campers may remove their plates to prevent theft. But I also saw CA motor vehicle numbered plates on camping trailers. (Motor vehicle license plates and recreational vehicle / trailer license plates have different number / letter combinations in California). I'm beginning to wonder what all those thousands of snowbirds are really doing over in Yuma, AZ, each winter in their motor homes.
The Coyotes follow many old Indian trails in San Diego County and Imperial County. Light sticks (hand-held breakable plastic illumination devices - 'Glow sticks') are used by some Coyotes to mark border fence crossing points, and are sometimes carried by the lead Coyote as a guide to the 'Pollos' (Chickens - what the Coyote smugglers call the illegals) following.
They always travel in single file to disguise their true number and to avoid the many cactus in this area. They even lay foam matting across the roads to leave the tire tracks undisturbed where a 'brush out' would be too visible to anyone looking for their tracks.
Every night at 3 AM, 5 or more single file groups of about 50 illegal aliens in each group came by my Horse Camp and through O'Neill valley at about 15 minute intervals and using approximately the same trail. But the same trail was not used from one day to the next.
And these trails seldom cross any other roads or trails. And if they do, the rear Coyote does a very good 'brush out' on the many shoe tracks in the sand or dirt by using a Juniper branch to rub them out. Or the above foam matting trick.
Often, the next morning the RV and 4 WD cargo pick up vehicles move out at high speed and transfer their cargo to a larger number of autos and pickup truck vehicles that have recently converged in another location farther from the border. I watched this from the top of Jade Mesa.
This area is actually under the jurisdiction of the Boulevard U.S. Border Patrol Station as it's in San Diego County, but my phone calls received little interest from them. Nor from the San Diego County Sheriff's Department whose dispatcher did not understand Range and Township locators (the only address here).
The El Centro Border Patrol Station in El Centro, CA, where I kept my horse at the HVB Ranch on W. Ross Road for about five years, seemed much more cooperative and sent out Border Patrol Agent Tjaden to place a motion sensor near some of the new smuggling trails on the property.
I really don't know if he placed the sensor however, because the smuggling continued every night after this, and I never saw a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle in this area during the time the smuggling occurred at 3 AM every night. They did say they caught about 100 illegals on two nights, but I have no way of knowing if these were the same ones keeping me awake all night.
Between October 2, 1995 and December 4, 1995, I rode and I hiked on foot, more than 50 of the new undocumented alien trails in O'Neill valley.
What I found are 4 wrist watches that were snagged off arms on brush and laying on the trail. 3 male type and 1 female type and all displaying an 1 hour time difference; Many, many hand towels (many from Guatemala); Many individual letters of reference and passage signed and stamped by various Mexican state and city officials; 1 checkbook full of checks (Hispanic name) for a bank account in Miami, Florida; Many packets of used and unused pregnancy nausea medication; 1 container of black liquid shoe polish; Many bars of soap; 1 black T-shirt, 1 black skirt (female), 1 makeshift baby backpack for carrying an infant, and other black clothing; 4 black backpacks; 1 key ring with keys that appeared to be master keys (in a black backpack); Many hidden water containers full of water (one liter 'Coyote size' - not one gallon milk jugs); On one trail one morning I found almost all boot and shoe prints appeared to be small or female and I found a female wristwatch on this same trail, again with an 1 hour time difference; And I found the same Coyotes' (people smugglers) footprints on the new trails each day. 8 different Coyote tracks were observed.
20 or more vehicles can be seen assembling 3 miles inside Mexico each evening at dusk south of the O'Neill valley area. They are then sometimes joined by a white van that travels to this assembly point at high speed.
Finally, on December 5, 1995, with armed off-duty CA Highway Patrol and San Diego County Sheriff's Department police officers as backup while I packed my things, I was forced to move off the O'Neill valley ranch property. I could no longer get any sleep as a result of the smuggling, the barking dogs (both mine and the neighbor's 1 mile west), and because someone was throwing pebbles at my camping trailer and at my horse trailer in the middle of the night, further bothering me and upsetting my horse. Was this another pickup signal?
Have you ever tried sleeping with people sneaking around your home every night? In the '80s I gave illegal aliens water, food, and sometimes even small amounts of money, but that was before the mass inflow of thousands per month that is occurring on this one mile stretch of private ranch property on the border.
Why is the U.S. Border Patrol seldom here when the smugglers and illegal aliens are present? (Between 1 AM and 5 AM). In two months I observed only 3 Border Patrol vehicles in this area after dark, and it was at a much earlier time of about 10 PM and only on the better roads, not where the smugglers were.
I then moved 50 miles farther north to Blair valley in the ABDSP (Anza-Borrego Desert State Park) and immediately experienced all of the above smuggling on the first night there. I saw many of the same vehicles (color, make, and type) that I'd seen in the two months I was in O'Neill valley. I believe they were the same vehicles, but how do you prove this when they alter the license plates?
A group of illegals came through Blair valley about 2 AM and appeared to be picked up by someone near Highway S-2 west of my campsite about 2 miles where a road flare was ignited and burning brightly after visiting another group of 3 campers with too many large picnic coolers for only 3 people camping two nights.
These groups of illegals continued to come through every night that I was here for the next two weeks. I informed the local State Park Ranger and the Ranger Headquarters in Borrego Springs, CA. I again informed the U.S. Border Patrol. I watched someone prowl around my camper late one night 20 feet away in the yuccas, and he had a faintly glowing light stick hidden in his pocket.
This area around Blair valley has experienced a large number of unexplained wildfires since 1994, but few before. I believe these wildfires are caused by the smugglers placing their road flare pick up signals in the tall Agave plant stalks and igniting them. Then the hot, glowing, drippings ignite the dry underbrush, which becomes a wildfire in the morning with the wind, higher temperature, and dryer conditions. Sometimes I find illegal alien cooking fires still smoldering, and they are common along the new illegal alien trails throughout the state park and the rest of San Diego County.
A large number of vehicles are in Blair valley from the L.A., Riverside, and San Bernardino, CA areas that were never here before about 1994. I've camped here about 30 days per year since 1980. I determined this from the addresses on the license plate frames and the dealership decals.
This area is a natural corridor for smuggling to the L.A., Riverside, and San Bernardino areas as there are no vehicle checkpoints to the north on Highway S-2 or beyond. And it appeared to me that the smugglers had the Blair valley area under surveillance both at the entrance of Blair valley at Highway S-2 (from a motor home with another pit bull dog) and on Highway 78 at Banner Store. The same guy with a beat up faded brown compact car without any license plates was always in the phone booth in front of the Banner store each time I drove there to get groceries or gas.
And I found new illegal alien trails in Blair valley, Little Blair valley, and up Smuggler's canyon from Vallecito. I hiked from Blair valley to the Vallecito Stage Station County Park and cut three new trails. I found the same boot prints and the same gait of some of the same Coyotes as were on the border in O'Neill valley.
And there is new graffiti spray painted north of Blair valley on the bridge at Scissors Crossing on Highway 78 over San Felipe creek that was not painted here before 1994. Go walk under this bridge and take a look, as it's quite extensive. Are gangs marking their turf or is this just more Southern California urban art?
Also at night, while in O'Neill valley, I observed an unmarked and darkly painted UH-1 Huey helicopter flying north from at least 10 miles within Mexico and coming from over the Mexican horizon and at very low altitudes within the shadow of the surrounding mountains. I again observed the same looking (I think the exact same aircraft) UH-1 helicopter flying back south almost every day between 11 AM and 2 PM while in Blair valley. This was a single engine UH-1 with the short body, and it appeared to have the high performance rotor blades. This same helicopter was observed flying back toward Mexico every day for many weeks by me from 1988 to 1996.
Could this helicopter be smuggling drugs too? And might it be being flown by the Mexican Baja Drug Cartel, by other drug smugglers, or by renegade U.S. law enforcement or U.S. or Mexican military personnel? I also discovered evidence that it may be landing along Highway S-2 in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and at the U.S. Forest Service helicopter pad located near Kitchen creek in the nearby Cleveland National Forest. Or might it be a U.S. Law Enforcement aircraft?
The helicopter appeared to be heading in a direction leading to the Los Angeles area. A low intensity flare was dropped as a signaling device from this same UH-1 Helicopter on one of the two occasions that I observed it flying north out of Mexico at night while in O'Neill valley.
This flare was dropped from the UH-1 Helicopter when it was near the two gasoline stations at the Jacumba I-8 Exit (The ARCO gas station and the Woodward Shell gas station - also Woodward Towing auto storage (impound yard) and wrecker service company - with another towing and storage (vehicle impound yard) location in downtown Jacumba next to the U.S. Post Office.
Also, I believe that large trucks may be being disguised as other legitimate commercial vehicles, and then used for smuggling from the O'Neill valley area to San Diego, CA. There is a very large high voltage power line that crosses the O'Neill valley area which carries electrical power from Tucson, AZ to San Diego.
Today this smuggling activity is reported along every mile of the back country border. The Morningstar Ranch in Tierra del Sol, CA (about 20 miles farther west of O'Neill valley) has counted and documented over 12,000 illegal aliens crossing their private property in 1997, and also the resulting destruction to their fences, crops, and other ranch property.
All of this activity was reported by cell phone to the proper U.S. Border Patrol Officials, I&NS and Customs Officials, and to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department from 10/95 through 12/95, usually as it was occurring. I carry a powerful cellular telephone while on horseback. All those phone numbers but so few agents on the border at 3 AM.
Between 1980 and 1995 I hiked, backpacked, and rode on horseback much of east San Diego County. Sometimes for weeks or months at a time and almost always without any outside support such as a horse trailer.
I noticed near the ranch in the fall of 1995 on the railroad tracks of the old San Diego and Arizona Eastern (SD&AE) a relatively new looking tanker-type railroad car. This rail line is still usable from Jacumba all the way to Tecate and Tijuana, Mexico, and then north to San Diego with the right-of-way and tracks owned by the City of San Diego. I thought at the time that possibly another local rancher, Jim Kemp of Campo, was using this tankcar to hold water for his cattle on this land. But that doesn't make any sense as there is year-round water nearby for them in Carrizo creek less than 1/8 mile away. This railroad tankcar was located very near the 2 gasoline filling stations on I-8, and I've seen Coyotes (smugglers) and smuggling vans in both their parking lots. Is it possible that drugs or other contraband are being smuggled north from Tecate or Tijuana, Mexico in this tankcar? Many 18-wheelers and highway tanker trucks often stop at these 2 gasoline stations nearby on I-8. There are also local rumors that both gasoline stations have personnel involved in smuggling. I personally saw the Ford van of one station cashier transporting people to the border on the Mexican side of the border in O'Neill valley late one night in 1994.
The SD&AE Railroad is said to be blocked by a tunnel cave-in east from Jacumba to El Centro, CA, and to Yuma, AZ, but I'm not so sure this is so. I saw diesel locomotives with freight cars use the railroad as recently as the winter of 1982-83 going to El Centro where it links to the Southern Pacific rail line. And I observed a 1 ton truck with special railroad wheels driving on the tracks near the Dos Cabezas siding in 1994. This truck had what appeared to be about 10 illegal aliens in the truckbed as well.
On another occasion seven white colored trucks with San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) markings on their doors were observed parked on the Mexican border on a remote 4wd dirt road for 5 days and nights over the Veteran's Day holiday weekend in 1995. They were parked near some large powerlines on our ranch directly on the Mexican border about 4 1/2 miles east of Jacumba, CA, and 1 mile south of Route 80. One of these vehicles was a tanker-type water truck, which I did think odd, as the roads are not dusty here (they are soft sand or hard clay - neither is dusty). Tanker-type water trucks are sometimes used to keep down dust on dusty roads at construction sites, or to clean the powerline insulators on lower voltage powerlines - but not on these powerlines I don't think. These are very large power lines from Tucson, Az. They are about 500,000 volts (500 Kilovolts) and you would not want a stream of water anywhere near them unless the power was turned off. I learned this as a wildland firefighter for both the California Dept. of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service. The power was never turned off because I could see its glow and arcing at night, and hear it in the lines during the day as my trailer was only 1/4 mile away. These power lines are so full of electricity that when I ride under them on horseback on a foggy damp morning my horse's mane would straighten from the static electricity. One SDG&E tanker truck looked like a construction company water-truck and the other two looked like oiler-trucks used to maintain heavy earth moving equipment. I also have a heavy equipment background from working more than 3 years in management for Caterpillar Tractor Company at their world headquarters in Illinois, and as a factory representative for them in CA, AZ, NV, and Mexico.
Now for the real puzzler. Three of these same San Diego Gas and Electric trucks (a mini pickup and two 3/4 ton mechanic's trucks) that I had observed on the ranch for 5 days and nights were parked across the street from my permanent home 66 miles west in San Diego when I returned there on about December 9th, 1995. I even recognized one driver from seeing him on the ranch. They remained across the street from my home for 2 days. I recognized the trucks from a distinctive decal in the rear window of one, and from the license number of another. I later checked the plate number with the San Diego Sheriff, and it was registered to the national rental company named Penske Truck Rental, not to the San Diego Gas and Electric Company. I then told the FBI in San Diego about the trucks being on the ranch, but not about them being across the street from my home in San Diego. Actually, I was hesitant to tell them that, because I thought they might think I'd really lost it. The F.B.I. came to my home, listened to my report, but really didn't seem too interested, as they asked very few followup questions and then left. These trucks could have been legitimate SDG&E maintenance trucks; or they could have been smuggling anything from cocaine to nuclear weapons into the country.
I read recently that the I.N.S. and U.S. Customs Service estimates that illegal alien smuggling is about a $10 billion dollar per year illegal enterprise today.
Rumors and Facts
It's rumored in Jacumba that each undocumented illegal alien receives $1000 for the delivery of his cargo to the designated location, and that each is charged $500 by the Coyotes to cross the border into the U.S.
I went to the Jacumba Post Office at 7 AM on a Saturday morning. The Postmaster was allowing me to charge my cellular telephone battery, as I have no electricity at my camp. At the gas station next door, I immediately recognized the Coyotes (smugglers) that I'd seen recently on the border and their boss.
I was out hiking one moonless night and got on the same trail with a group of about 50 illegals in single file and being led by their Coyote with his glowing light stick, and I hiked across our private property following them and watched where they went.
I observed another Coyote leave the area near I-8 water tank #28 in his faded 2 WD red Mazda mini pickup after completing his night's work, his light stick still glowing on the top of his vehicle's radio antenna where he'd stuck it while changing his cloths, and then I saw this same Coyote later in Jacumba near the U.S. Post Office with the other Coyotes and their Boss.
I have also seen this same Coyote leave O'Neill valley in the early morning at high speed in another 4 WD Orange Ford mini pickup, after I followed the tracks of a large group of illegals directly to and from this same Coyote's campsite.
These Coyotes seen in Jacumba near the Post Office are some of the same Coyotes that I saw ducking down in their seats to hide from me in their Bosses' new white extended cab Ford pickup truck, when I observed them and their Coyote Boss near the border out marking new trails for their night's deliveries. Their Boss was outside and still placing sand filled markers (soda cans and bottles) when I made myself visible to them on horseback.
I rode up on my horse and spoke with their Boss who attempted to disguise his voice by speaking with a drawl, as the others hid by ducking down in his truck. What he obviously didn't know is that I had watched them for almost an hour from my horse on a nearby hillside as they placed their sand filled soda can and bottle trail markers.
I inspected their trail markers immediately after they left the area, and I had this area in view the entire time to insure that I made no mistake in their identification and this conclusion.
A white pickup truck with 3 radio antennas on its roof has been seen by me picking up some of these same Coyotes early in the morning near the Interstate Highway I-8 water tank #28 on Highway 80 nearby.
I'm told that the U.S. Border Patrol flies a UH-1 Huey helicopter too, like the one I observed on many occasions.
Questions and Insight
Why are the U.S. Border Patrol, the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), the U.S. Customs Service, the BLM (Bureau of Land Management), and the San Diego County Sheriff's Department unconcerned about this smuggling information and smuggling operation? I've called them all about this numerous times, and I seem to hit an invisible wall of disinterest almost every time.
Wouldn't it be more cost effective and easier to stop drugs and illegal aliens at the border than to do it later in cities all over the U.S.?
And, if I'm wrong about this lack of law enforcement concern, what's being done to stop this obvious drug and people smuggling operation in O'Neill valley and Jacumba? And on the entire Southwest Border with Mexico?
I've never actually seen any drugs. But if not drugs... What? Guns for Drugs? Freon? Firearms are tightly controlled in Mexico, but there are major markets for weapons south of the border.
Another disturbing fact... Why did many of these cargo pick up vehicles have DoD. - Department of Defense decal stickers in their front lower left windshield? I would estimate maybe 20% of the vehicles I saw in O'Neill valley had these decals.
Update: I have recently learned that vehicles with DoD. stickers can bypass the U.S.B.P. highway checkpoints on I-5 and I-15 by driving around them by going through the U.S. Marine Corps Base at Camp Pendleton, CA.
And, if there are 12,000 Mexican illegal aliens (the number counted crossing the Morningstar Ranch nearby 20 miles to the west in 1997) and other illegal alien nationals coming across every mile of our Southwest Border each year, how many is that really? If the Southwest Border is 1,445 miles long (excluding about 500 more miles of the winding Rio Grande River)... 12,000 X 1,445 = 17,340,000 new illegal aliens per year?
And 250 illegals per night here in O'Neill valley is 91,250 new USA residents each year... or a city the size of Peoria, Illinois, crossing just this one mile stretch of border each year. (Peoria is the 3rd largest city in the state of Illinois).
Was any kind of environmental impact study conducted before Operation Gatekeeper's implementation? Did it address the approximate $1 billion in environmental damages caused by illegal aliens in just 2 years to San Diego County's backcountry? And can San Diego County seek any legal remedy from Mexico by using the International Court system?
One last question... Why is the U.S. Border Patrol using vehicles and aircraft that can be heard by the smugglers in this open backcountry from many miles away? Put better mufflers on those 4WDs. I can hear them 2 miles away out here (though not often enough). Had I not hiked at night and ridden a horse, I would not have been aware of this smuggling activity, or of its true magnitude in the O'Neill valley and in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park areas.
Why did I do all this investigating?
Because I've been forced off Mr. Van Dusen's private ranch as a result of these outlaws and their illegal activities. And I have not hiked, camped, or ridden my horse in the public recreation areas in almost 5 years. I have had my car randomly stopped and searched on 2 occasions by the U.S.B.P., and also searched at a traffic checkpoint on another occasion by the U.S.B.P. And I have had my horse trailer burglarized with almost $1000 worth of hand portable horse tack stolen (bridles, halters, lead ropes, bits).
These auto searches are no problem if you're an honest person, but not my favorite thing to do on a cold windy night as was the search on Sunrise highway in 1995. All searches occurred without any citations to me for any violations.
I have no answer for this type of problem with innocent civilians except to suggest as a goal: A secure border at the REAL border.
And people wonder why I often carry a .38 pistol or .30/.30 carbine while camping, backpacking, or riding? No, I don't belong to any militia group... except the U.S. Army Reserve. While in the Laguna mountains in 1987 a wild dog attacked my horse (he tried hamstringing his rear legs with his fangs) and on another occasion the same wild dog came into my camp late one night and dragged away my bag of horse feed grain. I was asleep in a sleeping bag on a flat boulder about 2 feet away. I think this wild dog was actually a Mexican wolf or an escaped pet wolf.
I've also been threatened and my horse chased by pit-bulls and other dogs on many occasions in the San Diego County backcountry. I've had a pack of Coyotes (animals) and a large Bob Cat (or Lynx) follow me in the Cuyamaca mountains. I've seen Mountain lions on Guatay mountain near Pine Valley, near Mount Laguna, and Mountain lion tracks near Jacumba, at Coyote mountain, and near Dos Cabezas. I've run into dozens of rattlesnakes, too many to count, and I've never fired a shot at any of them.
Don't put the 'race issue' into my reasons, either. I am not racist. I often wear a Mexican sombrero and I ride Mexican style - jacima bosal bridle and tapaderos, and I dally rope (da la vuelta) Mexican style too.
Keep up the good work you're doing, U.S. Border Patrol agents. We residents realize that you are restrained tremendously in your goals by our current Washington, D.C. Administration and its Justice Department / I&NS Management. Please continue your good work, do more of it, and do it closer to the border. And if it takes the U.S. Army and U.S. Marines to complete the job of protecting our border, let's get the job done.
If we don't get better control of our border, we may have the most destructive wildfire season in San Diego County history, thanks to El Nino's tremendous increase in vegetation... and an estimated 15,000 newly arriving illegal aliens everyday in San Diego County's backcountry. Especially so, if this open border situation continues into the extremely dangerous wildfire months of July, August, September, October, and November.
Many lives including those of the illegal aliens, 20,000 or more backcountry structures, and billions of dollars of property are at extreme risk from negligent and often unknowing illegal alien cooking fires and camp fires. Few people, who are not San Diego County backcountry residents, have any comprehension of the extreme fire danger we always have in San Diego County. Especially the city folks, politicians, and illegal aliens. The recent western wildfires provide an early warning of the potential damage that may occur in 2001 when our real summer arrives in mid-September.
San Diego County backcountry drug-using residents and visiting campers and RVers often hide their illegal drug stash outdoors under rocks or bury it near their residence or campsite. If your free-running dog finds and eats this, it will kill him. If you value your pet, keep it on a leash. And it only takes a short time off the leash for this to happen, such as a bathroom stop. I believe I lost a fine Black Labrador in Blair valley this way. This also explains the hundreds of dog poisonings that have been reported in eastern San Diego County since 1984. I have also observed wild animals poisoned in the backcountry, and the Coyote illegal alien smugglers and drug smugglers are known to poison and shoot free-running dogs in the border areas. Recently, a U.S. Border Patrol Agent's drug sniffing dog was dog-napped from the agent's home near Campo, CA, and later found shot to death.
Another warning to all illegal aliens attempting to swim the All-American Canal in Imperial County. This canal parallels the border throughout much of Imperial County. You are very likely to die trying. If you jump or fall into this canal, you will not be able to get out because of the swift current, the slippery moss-coated interior walls, and the sides being at such steep sloping angles. You will then be trapped by water force at an underwater grate at the next overcrossing and you will drown. DO NOT TRY SWIMMING ACROSS THIS CANAL.
Please also visit our 'Migration across the Mexico Border' study for more information.
Thank you,

U.S. Citizen
01 January 2001
San Diego, CA
Author's note: I've lived and worked on the Mexico border for over 22 years as a businessman (heavy equipment sales and service), ranch foreman (California and Colorado), federal and state wildland firefighter (U.S. Forest Service and California Department of Forestry & Fire), mineral prospector and mine claimant (5 placer mining claims in Imperial county, California), and volunteer U.S. Forest Service Wilderness Ranger (Pine Creek and Hauser Mountain federal wilderness areas - volunteer organization board member for 1 year term; and leader of mounted horse patrol and trail foot patrol for 3 years) . I favor fair international trade, proper border enforcement, and a responsible level of legal immigration. Thanks, but this website accepts no donations and is a not-for-profit entity.