Arizona the Focus of ACTT

If you haven't heard of ACTT, you've certainly heard about the results. The Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats is a collaboration between 60 law enforcement agencies to address drug movement across the US-Mexico border. And since half of such traffic comes into Arizona, we are ground zero for them.

Started in Sept of 2009, ACTT also involves agencies on the Mexican side and tribal authorities on Indian lands.

Perhaps their most noted success to date was the seizure of a ton and a half of marijuana in Pinal County in February, along with 102 arrests. That's huge. They've continued the tale with other high profile operations as well, including one a few weeks earlier that netted three and a half tons (yes, tons) of marijana and the arrest of more than a hundred people.

It's a bit scary isn't it? The problem is so vast that the seizures are in tons and the arrests in three digits.

According to their press release, ACCT uses:

• Thousands of technology assets – including mobile surveillance units, thermal imaging systems, and large-and small-scale non-intrusive inspection equipment – at and between the ports of entry.
• Screening of southbound rail and vehicle traffic for the illegal weapons and cash that are helping to fuel the cartel violence in Mexico.
• 1,200 National Guard troops have been deployed to actively assist law enforcement agencies, including 500 in Arizona that serve on Entry Identification Teams and as criminal investigation analysts to provide intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and counternarcotics enforcement support.

This is truly an escalation in the war on drugs. Will it work? I suppose it depends on what "work" means. The seizures and arrests along should impact the drug economy -- how much is unknown.