Abbreviation | AZBR |
---|---|
Formation | 2011 |
Type | private non-governmental Paramilitary militia |
Location | |
Key people | Tim Foley (AZ Recon Founder) |
Volunteers (2018) | ~250 Volunteers [1] |
Website | www |
Arizona Border Recon (AZBR) is an American paramilitary militia group in Arizona [2] composed of former military, law enforcement and private security contractors. [3]
Tim Foley, a former construction supervisor and United States Army veteran formed the group in 2011. [4] [5] [6] As of March 2018, the group had 250 volunteers operating in the Altar Valley around Sasabe, Arizona, [5] [7] [8] [9] [10] armed with personal weapons including pistols, shotguns and semi-automatic rifles. AZBR originally targeted illegal immigration, but as of 2015 had a stated goal of disrupting drug smuggling and trafficking across the United States–Mexico border [4] and preventing infiltration by foreign terrorists. [11]
Foley denies that it is a militia however the Arizona Daily Star has reported that "court records show he was intimately involved in militias that formed Operation Mutual Defense to help the Bundy family several years ago during its dispute with the federal government over the use of public land. They continue to detain and hold civilians along the border without any prosecutors bringing charges against them." [2] The group was featured in the 2015 documentary Cartel Land . According to Chicago Film Critics Association member Bill Stamets, the documentary was inspired by a December, 2012 Rolling Stone report. [12]
The group took part in the Mother of All Rallies held on September 16, 2017, at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in support of President Donald Trump, where Foley was one of the speakers. [13]
In August 2019, the expelled member Joshua Pratchard was sentenced with six years to prison for illegal gun ownership, manufacture of firearms and their sale. [14] [15] The militia expelled him, saying he did not want to follow their rules, including repeatedly asking to get physical with detainees and demanding to put a silencer on his weapon, and their recklessness when it comes to "stalking bandits". [16]
The Armed Forces of Gabon or the Gabonese Defense and Security Forces is the national professional military of the Republic of Gabon, divided into the Army, Air Force, Navy, and a National Gendarmerie, consisting of about 5,000 personnel. The armed forces includes a well-trained, well-equipped 1,800-member guard that provides security for the President of Gabon.
Vigilantism is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority.
The United States Border Patrol (USBP) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and is responsible for securing the borders of the United States. According to its web site in 2022, its mission is to "Protect the American people, safeguard our borders, and enhance the nation’s economic prosperity."
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The Minuteman Project is an organization which was founded in the United States in August 2004 by a group of private individuals who sought to extrajudicially monitor the United States–Mexico border's flow of illegal immigrants. Founded by Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox, the organization's name is derived from the name of the Minutemen, militiamen who fought in the American Revolution. The Minuteman Project describes itself as "a citizens' Neighborhood Watch on our border", and it has attracted the attention of the media due to its focus on the issue of illegal immigration.
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was a volunteer group at one time headed by Chris Simcox and dedicated to preventing illegal crossings of the United States border with Mexico. Arguing that the government was insufficiently concerned with securing the border, they organized several state chapters, with the intention of providing law enforcement agencies with evidence of immigration law violations. The group was one of several that emerged for the proliferation of civilian border patrol groups at the US-Mexico border. Arguably, the emergence of these groups can be linked to the increasing criminalization and securitization of immigration. Simcox stated that the group merely reported incidents to law enforcement, and did not directly confront immigrants. There was a standard operating procedure (SOP) that was to be followed by Minutemen volunteers, with rules including not speaking to, approaching, gesturing towards or having physical contact in any way with any suspected border crossers. According to Anthony Ramirez of the New York Times, the organization "has been criticized as being a right-wing militia".
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On May 30, 2009, 29-year-old Raul Flores Jr. and his daughter, nine-year-old Brisenia Ylianna Flores, were murdered during a home invasion in Arivaca, Arizona. The perpetrators were Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush and Albert Gaxiola, all members of Forde's vigilante nativist group, Minutemen American Defense (MAD). Gina Gonzalez, the victims' wife and mother, was wounded but survived the attack after exchanging gunfire with the intruders, wounding Bush.
Jason Todd Ready was an American marine, founder and leader of a border militia group and a member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement who sought the elected office of sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona. On May 2, 2012, at Ready's home in Gilbert, Arizona, he shot and killed his girlfriend, her daughter and granddaughter, the daughter's fiancé and himself.
Estimates of the total number of deaths in the Syrian Civil War, by various war monitors, range between 580,000 and approximately 613,407 as of March 2023. In late September 2021, the United Nations stated it had documented the deaths of at least 350,209 "identified individuals" in the conflict between March 2011 and March 2021, but cautioned the figure was "certainly an under-count" that specified only a "minimum verifiable number".
Los Ántrax is a large enforcer unit and hit squad for the Sinaloa Cartel, a major crime syndicate based in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The group was led by the drug lords Jesús Peña, José Rodrigo Aréchiga Gamboa, René Velázquez Valenzuela, among others, and they are responsible for a number of homicides and for providing armed security services to Ismael El Mayo Zambada. The gang operates in the capital city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, where its members conduct homicides and violent attacks. Los Antrax is the Sinaloa Cartel's largest and deadliest enforcer unit.
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Cartel Land is a 2015 American documentary film directed by Matthew Heineman about the Mexican Drug War, especially vigilante groups fighting Mexican drug cartels. The film focuses on Tim "Nailer" Foley, the leader of Arizona Border Recon, and Dr. José Mireles, a Michoacán-based physician who leads the Autodefensas. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2016.
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