A lot of this stuff goes on in and around National parks on the border. Americans can not even safely enjoy our own country


TUCSON, Ariz. -- Gunmen confronted nine or 10 illegal immigrants in a vehicle along a known smuggling corridor northwest of Tucson, killing three men Thursday and injuring at least two other people, authorities said.

One man was found dead on a dirt road frequented by human smugglers near the Silverbell mine more than 20 miles northwest of Tucson.

Authorities later found two more men dead about 10 miles north in the cab of the pickup truck that had been carrying the migrants, said Rick Kastigar, the Pima County sheriff's criminal investigations chief.

Those two men were among six or seven people in the group who were taken against their will, officials said.

Investigators were not certain why the group was attacked. "Of course, there was human trafficking, and we're thinking it was possibly that they were attacked by bandits," sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Jim Ogden said.

Gangs of armed bandits have been known to roam border areas and prey on illegal immigrants as they cross into the country. Feuding among smuggling organizations also is not uncommon, where one group will steal a load of migrants from another, essentially kidnapping them and demanding ransoms from their relatives to gain their freedom.

Kastigar said the migrants were in a white pickup truck heading north when four men armed with assault rifles in a second vehicle forced it to stop.

During a confrontation, one man was shot and killed. Two people were shot and wounded: a woman who sustained a neck wound and a man who suffered a hand injury that took off several fingers, Kastigar said.

Sheriff's Sgt. James Ogden said the two wounded migrants had "very, very serious injuries." Both were taken to an area hospital.

Two more men who were not injured were taken into custody as witnesses and were questioned by investigators, Ogden said.

Kastigar said the confrontation near Tucson occurred about 12 hours after an incident more than 70 miles south, near the border at Sasabe, in which 18 illegal immigrants were robbed at gunpoint by four heavily armed men wearing ski masks.

It wasn't clear whether the events were related.