Plot to Kill Arizona County Sheriff Exposed as Hoax

International Plot to kill Joe Arpaio Exposed as Hoax
URL: http://www.bloggernews.net/110811
by psburton
October 7th, 2007

Secret Informant initiates $500,000 In Public Expenditures:

Maricopa County Sheriff’ Joseph Arpaio spent an estimated $500,000 in tax payer dollars this past six months defending himself from an imagined assassination plot that he worried would incite a national furor over illegal immigration.

The imagined plot, according to a paid informant, involved the Minutemen hiring a Mexican drug cartel's hit squad and a immigrant-rights advocate acting as middleman. Sheriff’s officials now admit none of the paid sources information seems to have turned out true. According to the informant, Mexican Nationals would be blamed for the assassination, carried out by Los Zetas, an enforcement arm of a smuggling organizations made up of former Mexican police and soldiers.

The informant, claiming to play the role of translator in the plot said he witnessed a down payment of $1.5 million for the hit on Arpaio. 88 sheriff employees were tasked to the investigation for about 16,720 hours on the clock including $82,000 in credit-card bills. The case details and expenditure reports, obtained by a public-records request.

The grand motive, as related by the paid informant, was to incite Americans about illegal immigration and a Nation in mourning for the loss of its beloved Sheriff Arpaio would demand congress empower the Minutemen militia to defend the United States border. Arpaio still claims there was good reason to believe the plot was real.

To date no formal request for a presidential level secret service detail has been made. Though the sheriff evidently considers himself a National leader who’s killing would cast the country into Kennedy like mourning.

The alleged plot was to be carried out Easter weekend. According to deputy Larry Black who admitted to the Arizona republic the informer provided only two pieces of intelligence that were provable: “He knew how long it takes Arpaio to walk from his downtown Phoenix office to his parking garage”, and “he knew the sheriff recently had dined at a particular Mexican restaurant” in north Scottsdale.

Black head of the sheriffs super double top secret special investigations unit said investigators had to take the threat seriously when they heard those facts. “The honest truth was he was believable.”Asked if any of the investigation verified any factual leads, Black said, “No, it didn’t. Black conceded he no longer believes an assassination plot was planned.

The plot is detailed in sheriff’s records, And began with a March 18 meeting in San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico.

It took place at a home referred to as the “green house,” 7 miles south of town, surrounded by a 6-foot-high block wall with a metal gate. According to the story, two Minutemen leaders secretly met with the administrator of a Mexican narcotics ring. The Minutemen wanted Arpaio killed to “rally more support for their cause, which is to secure the U.S.-Mexican border and stop illegal immigration.”

They agreed on a price of $3 million in cash, with a $1.5 million down payment. Elias Bermudez, a Phoenix immigrant-rights advocate and talk-radio host, was the middleman in the plot. Bermudez said he never heard of the plot until he was contacted by investigators. the hit team would kill Arpaio up close with handguns.

“Pure fabrication,” Bermudez said. “I told them I had no reason to wish for the demise of the sheriff. The idea of me and the Minutemen trying to hire someone to do this is outlandish.”

You can E-mail burton@phoenixsentinel.com