Airfare and a Car Rental? Let's Start Smuggling
And, Bombshell Reporting on Seeming Incompetence in El Paso Prosecutor's Office
Hello again friends,
It’s getting hard to stay on top of everything that’s going on. We’ve been neglecting million dollar drug busts in the RGV, and all kinds of other mayhem elsewhere along the border.
Something that’s been quietly developing in Arizona, and almost certainly here in Texas is a practice where smugglers from several states away are flying into major airports like San Antonio or Tucson, renting cars, and driving down to the border for what they hope will be a tidy payoff smuggling illegal aliens.
Here’s the text of a news release set for publication in the Kinney County Post later this week:
A busy weekend for Kinney County Sheriff's Deputies, who averaged an illegal alien smuggling bust every 4 hours on the highway. In all, from 6 AM Friday, to Midnight Monday morning, Deputies caught 14 loads totaling some 62 illegal aliens. 16 people were accused of smuggling, among them 2 juveniles.
One suspect, a juvenile female from Houston, was apparently in possession of a stolen firearm. She's being housed at a facility in Jourdanton, as difficulties continue in finding jail space for female suspects and juveniles in general.
Deputies also report one bailout in the county during this period, and one high speed pursuit.
It's important to note that these numbers do not include arrests made during the same period by the Department of Public Safety.
Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe says the strangest case involved a suspect from Mississippi. One that reminds him of something that's happening in Arizona. "You got a lot of suspects flying into Tucson from everywhere, renting cars and driving to the border in Cochise County, picking up loads and driving them back to the city," he said.
Kinney County residents may have noticed a fire truck was called to the area near the County Jail over the weekend. Some worried the jail was on fire-- not the case. Apparently a pair of suspected smugglers were released from custody, and decided to take a walk into the nearby gully near the jail and Spring Street, where investigators say they decided to play with matches.
—News Release Awaiting Publication in the Kinney County Post
Since writing that, we’ve noticed incidents elsewhere along the border that seem to show similar “fly in, rent and drive” types of behavior.
DPS Doesn’t specify if the man was driving a rental, we watched the whole video to see if there was an easy-to-spot ‘Enterprise’ sticker near the trunk but no luck. Still, what are the odds that this character drove all the way from Indiana to Uvalde, at a time when we know others are flying in and renting?
And it’s not just cars— people have been renting Uhauls and Penske-style box trucks too.
It makes sense, in a twisted way. If you get caught, you don’t lose your personal vehicle— it’s the rental that gets seized.
Technically, all of these suspects are “cartel smugglers,” but the truth is, they’re more like independent contractors. The Cartels will throw money at poor folks looking for a payday, knowing that some will get busted. If they do— it’s no skin off the Cartel’s nose. They’ll just hire more.
A very interesting piece in the Texas Tribune catches our eye this morning.
Reports that the District Attorney for El Paso is under serious fire— accused of possible incompetence that threatens to derail the recent Wal-Mart mass shooting prosecution, as well— one assumes— possibly any and all other cases passing through the courts in El Paso.
We’re actually two days late on this one— readers may recognize Jolie McCullough’s byline on the piece. It appears to be another thorough tour-de-force for her.
And, it makes one wonder if this worry of incompetence might not also impact the prosecution of the Sheppard twins, recently accused of opening fire on a group of illegal aliens in Hudspeth County, killing one and wounding another.
Can you imagine? The horror of compounding these tragedies with blown prosecutions would be unforgivable.
We feel we’ve been too generous in our block quotes recently— we’ve noticed a lot of readers haven’t been bothering to click through and read the articles. Fair enough— but the devil’s in the details, as always, and in this case— McCullough’s reporting practically groans with the gravid weight of the details in her piece.
Here’s the teaser:
The office of El Paso County District Attorney Yvonne Rosales should be readying itself for one of the most high-profile murder trials in recent Texas history — seeking a death sentence for the man accused in a racist massacre at a local Walmart that took the lives of 23 people.
No state trial date has been set in the 2019 mass shooting, the case delayed at least in part by the pandemic and ensuing court backlogs. But now many are questioning whether the rookie district attorney is capable of prosecuting it at all.
During her first two years, Rosales has found herself engulfed in accusations of incompetence and scandal as her office appears unable to fulfill some of its most basic responsibilities.
—Reporter Jolie McCullough, The Texas Tribune
Here’s the link again, for your convenience: El Paso DA @TheTexasTribune.
McCullough also details efforts that may see DA Rosales pulled from office. There’s been scuttlebutt that communities in the Counties surrounding El Paso have been reluctant to bother sending cases to the DA— possibly because of this perception of incompetence, or perhaps the perception that cases would be pushed aside and left to languish by the DA.
McCullough’s piece doesn’t have those details— but it may be an angle worth following up, if someone out there wants to find a new chunk of this story’s hide and can get someone to go on the record.
Oh—- one other element we must share from Ms. McCullough’s reporting: Word that a case was dismissed, after a Judge found that the DA’s Office in El Paso was vindictively pursuing the death penalty after failing to delay trial, because they were not ready for prosecution.
Absolutely shameful if true.
Supporters of the DA have tried to dismiss the effort to remove her, calling it an attempt to administratively overturn an election.
Speaking of Hudspeth County and the case of the Sheppard twins— another reporter that should be familiar to our readers has a deep dive into some of the background and events.
James Dobbins, reporting for the New York Times, shares credit with two other reporters, for the piece which appears to set out the definitive summary of the events surrounding the shooting, as well as the troubled history of the private for-profit lockup that one of the brothers was the warden of.
Here’s the link, in the New York Times: Hudspeth County Shooting. Readers may be frustrated by the paywall. Try opening it up in an incognito window in your browser.
Readers may recall Dobbins’ last mention in the newsletter, fastening on to additional details in the case of January Six figure Lucas “Rooster” Denney, and how he was apparently working as a ranch hand/licensed agent on a Kinney County ranch linked to the County Attorney. Progressives have mistakenly repeated the story, saying the ranch is owned by the County Attorney. And also mistakenly cited it to support assertions that a DPS trooper was somehow “helping” Denney.
Bash the state’s standardized education testing all you want— but it seems reading comprehension has taken a dive, given some of what people have tried to claim after reading the piece.
Many readers of the Cavalry - Dispatch are familiar with Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd, who was present at the recent County Declaration of Invasion that happened at the Brackettville Civic Center in Kinney County.
To jog your recollection— Boyd was the one wearing a Cowboy hat.
That’s a joke.
Boyd actually sticks out in our memory for strongly making the point that the current border crisis amounts to a mass-importation of a new peon or slave class in the United States, whatever else anyone wants to call it.
Reporter Bethany Blankley, from the Center Square takes a closer look at the man and his background— and how the Border Crisis is impacting Goliad— a community some distance away from the Border.
Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd, a seventh-generation Texan who was elected in November 2020 after a 20-plus year career in law enforcement, is leading a multi-county task force to thwart what he says is a massive criminal network operating along Highway 59. The network stems from Mexico through Laredo to the trafficking distribution hub of Houston.
After Biden administration policies ushered in cartel activity through the southern border, Boyd said, Goliad found itself in the middle of a several hundred million dollar a month human trafficking operation.
Roughly 850 square-miles, the rural county’s winding roads are only interrupted by two stop lights. Its population is 7,400, and Boyd and multiple law enforcement officers are working to protect them from cartel activity in their community.
The border crisis isn’t about illegal immigration, Boyd argues, it’s about the lucrative business of human trafficking. Most who illegally enter at ports of entry do so by paying cartel operatives who orchestrate their crossing, the sheriff said. Once in the U.S., they owe the cartels thousands of dollars and work as indentured servants, Boyd said.
—Reporter Bethany Blankley, The Center Square
Here’s that link again, for your convenience. Blankley also goes into some detail about Sheriff Boyd’s family history, dating back to both the American and Texas Revolutions.
That should do it for now folks. The sun will be up here soon. We hope you’re having a great week— we’ll be back probably one more time before Saturday, unless circumstances dictate a heavier publishing schedule.
As always, this newsletter is an independent work product, and should not be taken as any kind of an official statement by Kinney County officials. Any errors, opinions, or other misdeeds are entirely our own. It is produced without the oversight of the Kinney County Sheriff’s office which employs us.