The San Diego sector of the United States Border Patrol says it has a message for smugglers in Otay Mountain.
“You’re no longer going to be making a profit by putting the lives of migrants and agents in danger.”
Officials say migrants often meet up with smugglers on a Mexican toll road near Tecate. They’re told by the smugglers, the U.S. is just on the other side of an unintimidating hillside, but really what awaits them is more than a day’s worth of San Diego’s most deadly terrain.
Sharp drop-offs, jagged rocks and extreme heat are just a few of the elements migrants face.
“If someone falls behind in this terrain, you will lose sight of your own people within 10 yards,” said U.S. Border Patrol Agent Matthew Dreyer.
He is the commander of the newly launched “Task Force Otay,” an enforcement effort on Otay Mountain to target cross-border criminal smuggling organizations.
“Our goal is to prosecute foot guides and alien smugglers in this terrain,” Dreyer said. “It’s a concentrated effort to put those folks in jail and keep them from smuggling human beings through dangerous mountains."
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After patrolling this mountain for more than 20 years, Commander Dreyer says he’s fed-up with foot guides profiting by putting human lives – both agents and migrants, in extreme danger.
It’s hard to believe that beneath the exquisite scenery, agents encounter some of the darkest sides of human nature.
Dreyer says often the smugglers set-up their customers to be robbed, raped and attacked for money. Then, the smugglers continue dragging the same migrants up the dangerous mountain, for payment, or leave them behind to die.
“If an alien crossing breaks an ankle or is too slow to keep up, they’ll leave them behind in this remote area, and that’s the dangerous part,” Dreyer said. “That’s who we’re after is those foot guides and alien smugglers that are smuggling people over this mountain.”
Some days, he said, there’s not much difference between an apprehension or a rescue, depending on how dehydrated and hurt the migrants are.
Border Patrol says the task force will continue until the smuggling on Otay Mountain stops.
