GILABEND, AZ --- Armed groups with neo-Nazi ties have started patrolling remote areas of the Arizona desert to deter human smuggling and contraband, reports Radio Bilingüe.
The volunteer groups lead by J.T. Ready, a self-described member of the National Socialist Movement, chose the area of Veckol Valley to patrol because a Pinal County deputy was shot there in May, allegedly by drug smugglers.
Ready was identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a neo-Nazi that supports white supremacist ideas.
During a recent incursion, Radio Bilingue followed the group that took over an empty “slaughter house” and depot in a remote area of the desert. Ready told reporters that he was willing to engage in an armed confrontation.
Local radio personality and activist Carlos Galindo and his wife, Carmen Galindo, filmed the incident, hoping that their presence would deter any abuse towards undocumented immigrants being smuggled through the area.
Galindo said that passage of SB 1070, the Arizona law that makes it a crime to be in the state without documents, as well as the rhetoric that promotes the idea that immigrants are coming to the United States to commit crimes, has emboldened the groups.