Mike rimer calls himself a ‘Cactus Cop’, much to the chuckle sometimes of those he meets. But in this region of the country and to those who sanctify succulents, busting poachers who thrive on saguaros for example, can be as important as catching thief nabbing a diamond necklace. You see, they can stand nearly 50-feet tall and in other cases, hug the arid sands of the Sonoran Desert that stretches from southwest Arizona into Mexico. Each one of these cacti, a prickly testament to a life without much water. But while thriving in some of the most difficult conditions on earth, cactus now face something more dangerous than urban sprawl…poachers who dig them out of the ground for prices into the thousands of dollars.

According to Rimer, these modern day rustlers wrap the cacti in carpet or heavy rugs/blankets to protect themselves and the dig up the roots and walk away with the whole thing. Across the border, stealing ocotillos , saguaros, barrel cacti among others has become an epidemic, with some areas of the desert nearly picked clean. Mexico has cracked down by stopping all exportation, but that’s if you catch the thieves. And the people buying these stolen succulents aren’t just Americans looking to spruce up the front yard, but more often foreigners from as far away as Japan and Germany. Here’s a behind the scenes video and a picture I snapped last night. The video is with Tony Apricella of Cherry Landscape here in Tucson. He is an artist in the yard and he knows his cacti!

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We are now down along the border south of Tucson for a couple of stories. I will expand on each story as we present it live, with the first one on cactus wranglers airing all day Wednesday. It is warm here per a normal June day and the desert is a arid and beautiful as ever. Meantime, I get a regular update from Customs and Border Protection Tucson Sector and they had a couple of interesting pictures from a recent rescue and bust. It seems marijuana smuggling is only getting bigger and I’ll ask agents about this on Thursday for our Friday live reports. This SUV was packed with 100-bundles of dope and the driver was caught as he attempted to take a back road and avoid a checkpoint. The rescue came as illegal immigrants try to cross the desert at the most dangerous time of the year. Temperatures here are consistently triple digits and the land is unforgiving. This man was carried out of a canyon by agents and then flown to a hospital. Both photos were taken by Agents in the Field and show some of the good work being done on our southern border. 

This picture comes from the dangerous and lawless border town of Sasabi. Human smugglers mark the path to the United States with this bottle and others like it. The paths are getting narrow and more crowded as we crack down in the border states. We have covered stories in recent months about increased violence now aimed at our border patrol and even local police forces inside the United States. Now what many have warned, more violence aimed at Americans, the percentages are growing and most of the victims have family, friends or businesses south of the border. When we spoke with Mexico’s Attorney General, both times he agreed that they have a battle in their northern states and for that matter across Mexico, against drug cartels and human smugglers. After the link…an AP write up. Keep Reading …