COCHISE COUNTY, Ariz. (KGUN) — President Donald Trump had enacted multiple border security measures, but for the Cochise County Sheriff's Office it’s business as usual, catching smugglers speeding through the area.
In 2024, CCSO encountered 150 cars that failed to pull over to law enforcement, leading to high speed chases on local highways. All carrying people who illegally crossed the border.
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“The southern border here is controlled by the criminal cartels down south,” said CCSO Detective Cody Essary.
He and others with the sheriff's office often take visitors, like President Donald Trump and Vice Presidnet JD Vance, to a section of the border where a cartel scouting nest is visible. I went to the spot with Detective Essary to see and learn how the cartels affect him and other members of law enforcement.
"Do you see the scout up there in between those two trees?” Essary asked me.
He says the scouts watch for Border Patrol and local law enforcement, to tell groups crossing when to go or when to hide.
If you have a good set of binoculars, you can look down there and see where law enforcement is," Essary said. "So when Border Patrol is leaving, they can say, 'hey, in this area, you're good to send your group, Border Patrol's leaving,' or, 'hey, Border Patrol's driving down the road. Have them hunker down and hide it'.”
He says encounters with human smugglers are continuing, despite President Trump's enforcement efforts.
"We're still getting equivalent numbers as we would during this time of year any other year,” Essary said.
He says it’s because the cartels are still running their business on the Mexican side of the border, an area they can't work in.
"People do not cross the border unless they pay the cartel first,” Essary said.
He says the control when people cross, where they’re picked up and dropped off. Essary told me that the drivers are told to do what they can to get out of the county because if the illegal border crossers don't make it to the 'stash' house in Tucson or Phoenix, then they don't get paid.
"It is a complete cartel operation where they control everything from beginning to end,” Essary said.
While driving along the border we didn't see the scout, but he saw us.
"He saw us quite a ways back," Essary said. "So, if there was a group about to jump, he could say, 'hold off guys whose vehicles come in', or if they're already across, he could say, 'hey, there's a vehicle, come and hide'.”
But, for deputies and agents, predicting what’s next can be hard.
"When you're working against a large criminal organization, it's always a game of cat and mouse,” Essary said. "It doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat. This problem is affecting every person that lives in our county.
"Now, you could go up to Willcox, Benson, you could talk to almost anyone in the community, and they've had a story about how the border issue has negatively impacted them.”
He says gaps in the wall make it easier to cross, but completing it isn’t the only solution. Essary showed me a part of the wall, near the scout, that didn't have any physical barrier. Cochise County has 83 miles of border; 76 of those miles have a physical border wall in place.
“The wall is just a wall without the enforcement behind it,” Essary said.
Trump has said he wants the rest of the wall put up. While we were driving there are pieces next to the wall, that were not put up during the Biden Administration.
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Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
