#3 In 1992, while doing an initial site assessment I visited the Jacumba/Smith Valley Boulevard areas along the border with the US Border Patrol Sector Chief and local law enforcement. The assessment was in part to establish priorities for engineering support to enhance border road trafficability and mobility, and to select placement of sections of a border wall construction program for the USBP.
The second initiative was to provide clandestine, observation positions to observe well established narcotics trafficking corridors to enhance focused USBP and LE enforcement response. I remember in particular the local USBP agent identifying the various cartel techniques in directing border crossing mules by alterations to traffic signs and houselights, and in particular, the numerous locals congregated at the Shell station that were identified as scouts and runners for the traffickers, met to socialize until nightfall and then to provide area counter-surveillance before narcotics runs were determined. This was in the early 90's, before the cartels had really started any assistance to illegal migration since they considered it not a profit source and thought it would bring more enforcement to the border.
Jacumba has been a key trafficking site for decades, The Arellano-Felix Organization (AFO), then as now is the most significant cartel in the San Diego--Imperial County area.
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