On drugs and migration

Alejandro’s eyes were vacant, blood red, darting randomly about the room. He was scratching vigorously at his arms, and shifting constantly in his seat. It was obvious that he was high but when he informed me that “no soy migrante, soy burrero,” “I am not a migrant, I am a drug mule,” I was taken aback by his honesty. I had spoken to other burreros before, but never while they were attempting to blend into the general population of economic migrants. At the shelter where we have been working for the past two years it is understood that in order to stay here, one must pretend to be a migrant. Because of this, it is rare that people admit to being professionally involved with the violent and dangerous criminal syndicates in charge of trafficking drugs, smuggling and trafficking people or robbing migrants in the desert. However, the connections between migrants and so-called, “border professionals” represents a complicated web of structural factors and individual agency that result from the desperation and violence that envelope undocumented migration.

Alejandro wore a blue-checkered button down shirt, cap and baggy jeans that were slightly torn from the six days he spent in the desert. He claimed to be from Salina Cruz Oaxaca. His primary language is Huave , an endangered language, which suggests that he is probably originally from a smaller village nearby since only 4 villages and 18,000 people continue to speak Huave. Alejandro had been living in Caborca, Sonora eight years ago, where he got involved with drug trafficking.
In total, Alejandro had made four attempts to carry about 50 lbs of marijuana in a backpack through the desert to different drop points. He gets paid $1800 USD for each successful trip. Twice he successfully made it to Phoenix and twice he dumped the backpack and turned himself in to the border patrol, pretending to be a migrant, asserting that he would not be reprimanded for loosing the drugs.

Every group that works with migrants, be it as humanitarian aid workers, Mexican Government officials or U.S. Border Patrol spends considerable energy attempting to differentiate the real migrants from the fake migrants. This may very well be an impossible feat. Many of the border professionals involved in illicit activity were at one-point migrants searching for work in the U.S.; Alejandro is but one example of this phenomenon. A recent article in the Washington Post interviewed a man involved in kidnapping and extorting money from undocumented migrants, who himself was a migrant that owed a debt to the cartel.

This topic is one of the most central issues in undocumented migration, but activists or humanitarian groups in the “pro-migrant” camp almost never touch it. Conservative anti-migrant groups use the drug trade as blanket rational for treating all migrants as criminals, interning them in prisons and building more fortifications to keep them out. It is more complicated than both these groups are willing to admit. For this entry I will discuss several interviews with people that were involved in the drug trade and how this has shaped the migrant stream through Sonora, Arizona. It is complicated, messy and dangerous but it is also important for understanding the system that has been created by the cartels to use U.S. immigration prevention strategies to limit the effectiveness of U.S. drug prevention practices.
Since the cartels have taken a lot of control over the human smugglers (Guides, Coyotes, Polleros), they are able to control the large groups of migrants that cross and use them as diversions. Normally, this is accomplished by staggering groups of 15-20 migrants in 30-minute intervals and then sending a small group of burreros behind them, so that they can see any border patrol activity in front of them. They are essentially using the migrants to hide in plain sight.

Another way the cartels take advantage of undocumented migrants is by preying on the vulnerable people, homeless on the streets in need of money or assistance. Convincing people to carry a load of marijuana across is sometimes done with clever promises, other times it is done with a gun to the migrant’s head. In an interview that my colleague Paola Molina conducted, a young man named Luis was approached by men at a bus station in Nogales, Sonora after being deported and was forced into a van. He was threatened with death if he did not cross as a diversion to a drug shipment. When he arrived in Phoenix he was held in a safe house and held for ransom. Luis was informed that if he killed someone from a rival gang they would let him go. He was able to get ransom money from his sister but ICE agents raided the house and he was deported. It is hard to say how common this experience is, but it is important to note how strong the pressure to comply with the drug trafficking regimes can be for migrants.

The next interview with an experienced drug trafficker will explain exactly how drugs are transported from Mexico to the U.S.

Jose:

Originally from Veracruz, Mexico Jose was a short man in his early thirties with a shaved head, wearing a button down short sleeve polo shirt and baggy jeans. He was about 5’6” and he was missing half of his pinky finger on his right hand.
He began by declining to do a survey, preferring to talk to me instead. I told him that was fine. He told me that, “Nogales es mas feo que Juarez.” “Nogales is worse than Juarez.” He told me a story about how he and a friend he met in detention were accosted by a highly organized group of kidnappers, theives or smugglers (he was not sure since they escaped).

After his story we began chatting about the drug violence. Jose had been living in Ciudad Juarez, the epicenter of the drug violence in recent years. He mentioned that migrants cross “cargados de mota,” “weighed down by weed.”. He asked me if I know Magdalena. I said yeah, “Mafialena de Kilo,” a popular nickname for the town, now overrun by drug trafficking. Jose laughed out loud. I asked under my breath if he had ever crossed with drugs. Everyone had left the room at this point so we were alone in the chapel. He said, “Mira” I will tell you how it is.

There were obviously some incongruities with this interview. He told me a couple stories of being apprehended and stories of getting to Tucson with the drugs, inferring that it was his first and only time, however because of the way he was able to give me details about being a burrero, I inferred that he had more experience than he let on.

He told me the story of his first time crossing drugs through Magdalena, Sonora, a town about 40 miles south of the border. Jose told me that he ran into some friends and they started talking about crossing into the U.S. They asked him if he knew the way and Jose said that he did, more or less. They got into a truck, filled with oranges to drive close to the border. The oranges filling the truck immediately perplexed Jose and the strong smell of the fruit saturated the air. They arrived at a little ranchito in the hills outside of Magdalena and pulled out the oranges, to reveal the packages of marijuana underneath. They wanted him to cross with it. Jose said, no, I don’t want to. They pressured him, saying, come on, you were going to cross anyway, let’s make some money, are you scared? Jose told them he wasn’t scared.

He went into great detail about the crossing experience. He explained that, you start with 22kgs (48lbs) of Marijuana in packages. You tie this to your backpack. He said that he was lucky that he knew how to tie well. Jose said that he looped it underneath and around the sides of the backpack and tied two costales, or bags to each strap to fill with other supplies and marijuana.. The 50 lbs of weed is just the beginning. They give you maruchan, polvo (cocain to keep your energy up), dragones (disposable camp stoves), cans of tuna and beans, maiz, tortillas and a gallon of water. Jose said that it was hard to walk because of the weight. They could only go for short periods of time and it would take a long time to get the group together to get going again. Jose explained that there were ten people carrying the drugs, as well as a guide and the “encargado”. He said that normally there are between five and ten burros. They refer to the leaders as “guia” and “encargado.” It is important that no one know anyone else’s name, for safety. The leaders are in charge of the safety of the shipment. The guia was carrying two handguns. Jose motioned as if he was a gunslinger from the Wild West pointing his fingers at me as if they were pistols. Bang, bang, he said.

Jose informed me that the real boss is the encargado. He knows the duenos personally. Only his word will save you if you lose a shipment of drugs. The encargado has to tell them that it was the migra or soldiers or bajadores that took the drugs. This is to insure that no one runs off with the drugs. He said that all the leaders are from Sinaloa but the real boss is from Durango. I am assuming that he was referring to “El Chapo,” the biggest drug lord in Mexico that recently appeared at number 701 on Forbes’ list of billionaires.

Jose said that they walked for three days and nights, hiding and sleeping in the day, walking at night. They diverged from the traditional migrant paths after a the first day and went really high up in the sierra, where the migra rarely goes. No one goes there because it is so high, and so difficult to climb. According to Jose, all the ranches are working with the drug traffickers. They coordinate shipments, give signals that the coast is clear and give rides to people. Jose got picked up by a van, when they were high in the mountains. They waited for a series of signals from the ranchers, lights, radio communication. They all have gps units. Jose said that they are extremely coordinated up there in the sierra. Everyone is involved.
They arrived at a ranch owned by an “indio” to get some food and sleep in the barn. Jose said that they give you a package of weed to smoke if you want. I think this might be a way that they try to pay people in product instead of giving the money that was promised. Then they were driven to the Tufesa bus station in Tucson and sent back to Mexico. He said that they were supposed to pay him $1300 there, but they didn’t. Jose said he was going to go back to see them in Mexico, but he didn’t seem too worried about it. He shrugged and said “No me pagaron, Esta vez, no me pagaron.” “They didn’t pay me. This time they didn’t pay me.” The story I have often heard is that instead of paying people, they convince them to cross again for the promise of more money. Then they have you hooked.

Some other people coming into the chapel interrupted us. Jose told me, that he couldn’t talk about this stuff if there are other people here. In this shelter “there are people that do EVERYTHING. You have no idea,” he informed me in a hushed but emphatic voice.

Conclusion:

It is estimated that 50% of the drugs that enter the U.S. come through the Tucson Sector, and this is how the majority of the marijuana arrives. Other drugs are usually taken through the ports with the aid of corrupt officials. According to Jose, there are many officials on BOTH SIDES that are involved. Both of the drug traffickers interviewed here were formed migrants that failed at making it to the U.S. as workers. Both of them said that they will keep crossing until they get caught, at which point they get 8 months in jail and then will have to do something else for money. However, that is the least of their worries. This is a dangerous business and the likelihood for a long life is slim. Mexico saw about 6,000 drug related murders in 2008 and over 13,000 since the drug war began in 2006. The majority of these deaths occurred on the border in the struggle for control of shipment routes.

It is important not to demonize or dehumanize the people involved. That is a lot of lives lost. People that used to be “real” migrants can easily become mules. All it takes is one more kidnapping, one more robbery, more debt to repay and they have you. As the cartels take control of the coyotes, they have more and more leverage to use against people and make them work for them. The gangs therefore have an infinite labor supply. You borrow money to cross, they kidnap you, or you fail to make it to the U.S. how do you pay back those $2-3000? That is the question many people are left with. There are no good answers either.