FBI: Iraqis Being Smuggled Across the Rio Grande

Wonder what happened here! Brian Ross at ABC must have got some real coffee instead of decaf & woke up or got hit by a cluebat…because this development is
(a) nothing new, and
(b) nothing but what a normal person might expect to be the result of our feckless enforcement of the border!

The FBI is investigating an alleged human smuggling operation based in Chaparral, N.M., that agents say is bringing “Iraqis and other Middle Eastern” individuals across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

An FBI intelligence report distributed by the Washington, D.C. Joint Terrorism Task Force, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, says the illegal ring has been bringing Iraqis across the border illegally for more than a year.

The gory details are all too predictable:

The FBI report, issued last week, says the smuggling organization “used to smuggle Mexicans, but decided to smuggle Iraqi or other Middle Eastern individuals because it was more lucrative.” Each individual would be charged a fee of $20,000 to $25,000, according to the report.

The people to be smuggled would “gather at a house on the Mexican side of the border” and then cross the Rio Grande into the U.S., the report says. “Unidentified individuals would then transport them to train stations in El Paso, Texas or Belen, New Mexico,” according to the FBI document.

Unfortunately, there is more ” right hand not telling the left hand what it’s doing” that discourages one from thinking that the situation is being dealt with in any sort of effective way:

Border Patrol officials in the area said they were unaware of the specifics of the FBI’s report, and federal prosecutors in New Mexico told ABCNews.com they had no current cases involving the illegal smuggling of Iraqis….A spokesman in Albuquerque said the FBI had “no viable information” that could lead to a case.

And many in D.C. still wonder why people get exercised about the border issues!