Illegal Aliens Stealthy and Single Speed
08-22-06 | 01:37 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 74
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From: Champlain Valley, Adirondacks
Bikes: Salsa La Cruz, Fat Chance Kicker, 29SS
Illegal Aliens Stealthy and Single Speed
Check this:
Mexico migrants use cycles to cross Arizona desert
THREE POINTS, Arizona (Reuters) - Illegal immigrants and drug traffickers are using dilapidated bicycles to make a swift, night-time dash over the desert to Arizona from Mexico, border police say.
Border Patrol agents in the desert state are finding dozens of the bikes dumped at hamlets such as Three Points, southwest of Tucson, which are used as staging areas by smugglers ferrying marijuana and immigrants on to cities inland.
"The illegals use bicycles, either riding them on ranch roads or the foot trails themselves, as a quicker means of getting north," said Border Patrol agent Kevin Nutwell as he inspected a rusty bike discarded on one lonely trail south of Three Points.
Agents say it takes up to three days to walk the 45-mile (72-km) trail from the border to Three Points, where immigrants are picked up for an onward journey to Tucson and Phoenix either by truck or packed into cars.
Stealthy cyclists who make the trip in groups of up to 10 people led by a guide or "coyote" can make the trip in just a few hours.
Reuters saw two bicycles dumped on ranch trails outside Three Points, one a 10-speed mountain bike, the other a rusted Chinese model with fat tires and wing handlebars. (Too Cool.)
"The bikes have no amenities like brakes and they sometimes are lucky to have a seat on them," Nutwell said. (Sweet!)
"They spray paint the bikes flat-black and remove reflectors so that it is easier to travel at night undetected," he added.
Southern Arizona is the most heavily transited area along the porous 2,000-mile (3,200-km) U.S. border with Mexico.
Last year the cactus-studded corridor south of Tucson was used by more than a third of the 1.2 million illegal immigrants caught crossing the international line.
Nutwell said agents also found bicycles that had been rigged with special frames to carry bundles of marijuana along the back roads that crisscross the lonely stretch of desert. (Cargo Bikes!?)
"It's just one of the ingenious forms of smuggling that we come across; there's no end to it."
Mexico migrants use cycles to cross Arizona desert
THREE POINTS, Arizona (Reuters) - Illegal immigrants and drug traffickers are using dilapidated bicycles to make a swift, night-time dash over the desert to Arizona from Mexico, border police say.
Border Patrol agents in the desert state are finding dozens of the bikes dumped at hamlets such as Three Points, southwest of Tucson, which are used as staging areas by smugglers ferrying marijuana and immigrants on to cities inland.
"The illegals use bicycles, either riding them on ranch roads or the foot trails themselves, as a quicker means of getting north," said Border Patrol agent Kevin Nutwell as he inspected a rusty bike discarded on one lonely trail south of Three Points.
Agents say it takes up to three days to walk the 45-mile (72-km) trail from the border to Three Points, where immigrants are picked up for an onward journey to Tucson and Phoenix either by truck or packed into cars.
Stealthy cyclists who make the trip in groups of up to 10 people led by a guide or "coyote" can make the trip in just a few hours.
Reuters saw two bicycles dumped on ranch trails outside Three Points, one a 10-speed mountain bike, the other a rusted Chinese model with fat tires and wing handlebars. (Too Cool.)
"The bikes have no amenities like brakes and they sometimes are lucky to have a seat on them," Nutwell said. (Sweet!)
"They spray paint the bikes flat-black and remove reflectors so that it is easier to travel at night undetected," he added.
Southern Arizona is the most heavily transited area along the porous 2,000-mile (3,200-km) U.S. border with Mexico.
Last year the cactus-studded corridor south of Tucson was used by more than a third of the 1.2 million illegal immigrants caught crossing the international line.
Nutwell said agents also found bicycles that had been rigged with special frames to carry bundles of marijuana along the back roads that crisscross the lonely stretch of desert. (Cargo Bikes!?)
"It's just one of the ingenious forms of smuggling that we come across; there's no end to it."
08-22-06 | 04:17 PM
#5
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 74
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From: Champlain Valley, Adirondacks
Bikes: Salsa La Cruz, Fat Chance Kicker, 29SS
I like that they call the brake an "amenity".
Being against illegal entry into our country, I feel somewhat conflicted because I'm thinking that a peleton of aliens with their coyote "boss" is pretty cool. I'm also thinking that the big Wald delivery basket would serve the marijuana smugglers well. You know, keeping the weight over the front wheel, being able to see your "load", and convenient too. Also, for the really hardcore smugglers, they could add a couple of the folding grocery panniers. I'm guessing they are violating a variety of UCI standards with their custom mods, but this is purely an unsanctioned event so screw em.
Being against illegal entry into our country, I feel somewhat conflicted because I'm thinking that a peleton of aliens with their coyote "boss" is pretty cool. I'm also thinking that the big Wald delivery basket would serve the marijuana smugglers well. You know, keeping the weight over the front wheel, being able to see your "load", and convenient too. Also, for the really hardcore smugglers, they could add a couple of the folding grocery panniers. I'm guessing they are violating a variety of UCI standards with their custom mods, but this is purely an unsanctioned event so screw em.
08-22-06 | 04:24 PM
#6
Gone, but not forgotten
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 4,508
Likes: 1
From: Toronto
Bikes: spicer fixie, Haro BMX, cyclops track, Soma Double Cross, KHS Flite 100
I wonder why they ditch the bikes afterwards... Its not like only illegal immigrants ride crappy bikes.
"The illegals use bicycles, either riding them on ranch roads or the foot trails themselves, as a quicker means of getting north,"
Sounds kind of like NY messengers tearing it up.
The best part of that article has to be that they think that riding bikes as a way of getting around is "ingenious". WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF THAT?
"The illegals use bicycles, either riding them on ranch roads or the foot trails themselves, as a quicker means of getting north,"
Sounds kind of like NY messengers tearing it up.
The best part of that article has to be that they think that riding bikes as a way of getting around is "ingenious". WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF THAT?
08-22-06 | 04:55 PM
#7
OCP-Poseur...
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 254
Likes: 0
From: Cerritos, CA
Bikes: Madone 5.9, Cervelo R2.5
they prolly ditch the bikes cuz they have a van or some other faster form of transportation waiting...
Paper boy basket, with another larger basket placed on top of that once its loaded, with another large basket over the front mounted to the handlebars...
Paper boy basket, with another larger basket placed on top of that once its loaded, with another large basket over the front mounted to the handlebars...
