Arizona Sheriff Issues Permission to Use Lethal Force Against Drug Cartels and Bandits

Katie Pavlich | December 23, 2010 4:35 PM

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu has issued permission to his deputies to use lethal force against drug cartels and illegal bandits.

From KGUN 9 news in Tucson, Ariz.:

PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. (KGUN9-TV) - Sheriff Paul Babeu has announced he plans to use deadly force, if necessary, to drive smugglers and border bandits out of his part of the desert.
The Pinal County Sheriff's Office has recently been in the spotlight for sniffing out smugglers and their drug loads.
Sheriff Babeu told KGUN9 News he's about to go on the offensive with a massive show of force to stop smugglers and bandits.
"We're sending out three different teams of eight to fifteen deputies in each that are heavily armed, even with sniper teams, out to the desert at all hours of the day and night," Babeu said.
Typically, deputies would sneak up on smugglers before arresting them, but Babeu says not this time. "We're going to wait until these cartel members come on through and we're going to announce ourselves in Spanish in this known drug smuggling corridor. That this is the Sheriff, drop your weapons, you're under arrest," Babeu said.
In the week following the shooting death of a Border Patrol agent, the Sheriff admits the chances of having a gun fight in the desert are extremely high. After all, it's the same desert where one of his deputies was shot and where they've seized thousands of pounds of drugs. Babeu says deadly force will be used if his deputies confront dangerous cartels.
"I've given specific instruction, no less than lethal force is going to be used. It's all lethal force only and we go into that environment knowing that we're likely expecting an armed threat from these people," Babeu said.