Goddard issues dire warning at border meeting

State Attorney General Terry Goddard warned of "gunfights in the streets of Tucson" if the U.S. doesn't get a handle on well-funded, highly organized Mexican drug cartels that have ramped up violence along the border.

"The cartels are totally integrated, with arms-, money-, drug- and human-smuggling all a part of their business operations," Goddard said Tuesday after a three-hour, closed-door meeting with 60 law enforcement officials. "On the U.S. side, there has been a fractured response. This (meeting) will give us a more effective response."

Tuesday's meeting in Tucson involved high-level representatives from local, state and federal agencies, including the State Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security.

Officials were short on specifics, but agreed it was helpful to meet face-to-face with others seeking to stop drug- and human-smuggling going north across the U.S.-Mexico border and the flow of cash and weapons going south.

The meeting was convened by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who called it "a milestone."

Sahuarita police chief John Harris said he believed that now that he has met the other actors in the border-control effort, it will be bring more effective cooperation in the future.

As an example of the utility of the meeting, Pinal County officials learned they could turn over an expensive drug-disposal problem to the federal government, Harris said. As local police confiscate increasing amounts of drugs, especially bulky marijuana, they have discovered it is expensive to get rid of it. They learned Tuesday that the Drug Enforcement Agency will take it away.

More typically, it is local agencies that have to bear the costs of border enforcement, which is officially a federal responsibility. Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall said the U.S. Attorney's office has dumped a large number of drug cases onto county officials, costing taxpayers and overloading local officials.

One small remedy on the way is additional resources coming to federal prosecutors that will allow them to stop dumping cases involving smaller amounts of drugs onto local court systems.

"Hopefully that will ease up on the cases that we had to prosecute that should be in the jurisdiction of the United States' Attorney's office," Cochise County Attorney Edward G. Rheinheimer said.

Giffords said the nation is beginning to focus on border security and "this is an opportunity to capture the nation's attention as bills move through Congress" that would bring more resources to the border.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik noted for the first time in memory, a president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, appears to be serious about battling drugs.

Giffords said pending legislation might bring more technology to the border but did not talk about comprehensive immigration reform.

Harris and others said the spillover of violence from the border is already occurring, with a border-related shooting within a mile of Sahuarita in the past two years. Chases have caused damage and injury and cost law enforcement agencies resources throughout the region.

Another new program that may help reduce border violence is an overall economic aid program for Mexico that might help stabilize the country's reeling economy and which includes a program to help border officials inspect vehicles entering their country and detect guns and money.

David Johnson, Assistant Secretary for the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said that pilot program is only operating in the Rio Grande area across from Texas, but may develop into a way to slow the flow of guns and cash headed south in other areas.