The police chief in Rocky Point is in stable but extremely critical condition after being ambushed, according to city officials, in Puerto Peñasco. The chief and the chief's bodyguard were shot over the weekend.
The bodyguard is reportedly in better condition than the chief.
Local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies say they are working together to make sure the crimes don't go unpunished.
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One of the big reasons the movement to "secure the border" has been so widespread lately is the ongoing problem with drugs and money being funneled through Arizona. Monday, the Arizona Attorney General launched a plan to help fight money laundering, but he admits it may not be enough.
The cartels that funnel money, drugs, and people through the Southwest border are one of the most lucrative programs in the world, according to Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, "$40-billion from the United States to the cartels goes every year."
But Goddard hopes to cut down that flow of $40-billion, with $50-million worth of grants made available for border law enforcement agencies, "Funded by Western Union company, which will be available for law enforcement on the border to fight against border crime, specifically money laundering."
The plan is to educate and pay for investigators and prosecutors who will develop programs to target money laundering here, as well as in new Mexico, Texas, and California.
"We're gonna be putting together the best minds to look at cartel operations in the United States," Richard Wintory is the lone man spearheading the effort right now. He plans to reach out to state and local law enforcement agencies along the southwest border to help fight the cartels, "What we can do is target these groups, engage the activity, look at the way they're structured, they're organized, and go after them."
Goddard, however, concedes that $50-million will only take them so far. Yet his hope is that the law enforcement agencies who use the money are successful.
And success would involve seizing the cartels' assets and re-investing them back to the fund. "And so we are actually using the cartels to finance their own destruction. That's the idea," says Goddard.
An idea that all depends on the ability to stop the organized border crime.
The $50-million available to this fund are possible because of Attorney General Goddard's $94-million settlement with Western Union back in February.
