Crime log

Bandits near Arivaca shoot border-crosser

An illegal immigrant was flown to the hospital with serious injuries Tuesday morning after being shot the night before by border bandits, Pima County Sheriff’s reports said.

The man was discovered in Arivaca about a half-mile south of the Sands of Time Ranch along with two other border-crossers. He had been shot in the knee cap around 10 p.m. Monday by bandits who robbed his group, which consisted of nine illegal immigrants known to be smuggling marijuana, reports said.

After becoming separated from the group, the three men walked approximately 15 miles before they were found by a Border Patrol agent, reports said.

The injured man was airlifted to University Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.

The Green Valley News previously reported that the five suspected border bandits were apprehended Tuesday afternoon by agents who discovered weapons and six bundles of marijuana totalling nearly 200 pounds near the scene of the robbery.

The suspects, two 16-year-olds, the others aged 15, 23 and 24, all Mexican nationals, confessed to agents they had crossed the border with the intent of robbing the smugglers, and had shot the man by accident, reports said.

Agents apprehended three drug smugglers and seized 317 pounds of marijuana Thursday night in the desert just west of Green Valley, the U.S. Border Patrol reported.

Agents used a Mobile Surveillance System to find the backpackers, who were spotted hiking near the southeast corner of the Freeport McMoRan mine tailings at about 9 p.m., said Border Patrol spokesperson Robert F. Daniels.

The smugglers, all illegal immigrants from Mexico, were taken to the Border Patrol’s Tucson station for processing.

Earlier in the week, agents apprehended two men attempting to smuggle narcotics through the Interstate 19 checkpoint near Amado, Daniels said.

Around 9 a.m. Wednesday, a 41-year-old male with a Border Crossing card from Nogales-Sonora was found to be smuggling 300 pounds of marijuana hidden under a false floorboard in his Dodge truck.

An hour later, K-9 units led agents to the underside of a older-model Ford pickup where nearly 100 pounds of marijuana was discovered inside a hidden compartment. The driver, a 37-year-old Rio Rico man, was arrested and booked into Pima County Adult Detention Center, reports said.

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726