Military Wiki
Arizona Border Recon
AbbreviationAZBR
Formation2011
TypeParamilitary militia
Location
  • Altar Valley, Arizona
Key people
Tim Foley (founder)

Arizona Border Recon (AZBR) is an American paramilitary militia group in Arizona composed of former military, law enforcement and private security contractors.[1] 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.[2]

The group was formed in 2011 by an Arizona man, Tim Foley, a former construction supervisor and Army veteran.[3][4] As of late 2015, the group had c. 200 members operating in the Altar Valley around Sasabe, Arizona,[4][5][6][7] 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 across the United States–Mexico border[3] and preventing infiltration by foreign terrorists.[8]

References[]

  1. Tim Gaynor (October 26, 2014). "Desert Hawks: Paramilitary veterans group stakes out US-Mexico borderlands". Al Jazeera. http://projects.aljazeera.com/2014/arizona-border-militia/. 
  2. Bill Stamets (July 22, 2015). "Cartel Land: civilian outliers versus outlaw capitalists". billstamets.com. https://billstamets.com/tag/arizona-border-recon/. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Arizona Border Recon" (Streaming audio). Latino USA. NPR. August 28, 2015. http://www.npr.org/2015/08/28/435573861/arizona-border-recon. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 Damon Tabor (December 20, 2012). "Border of Madness". Rolling Stone. document ID 1269705456. 
  5. David Sim (November 17, 2016). "Heavily armed civilian vigilantes patrol US-Mexico border for illegal immigrants: Arizona Border Recon conduct reconnaissance operations along a 52-mile desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley". International Business Times. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/heavily-armed-civilian-vigilantes-patrol-us-mexico-border-illegal-immigrants-1592087. 
  6. Navideh Forghani (November 24, 2015). "Arizona Border Recon takes border protection into their own hands". KNXV-TV News (ABC 15). http://www.abc15.com/news/region-central-southern-az/other/arizona-border-recon-takes-border-protection-into-their-own-hands. 
  7. Tim Steller (May 27, 2012). "Militias in Arizona thrive despite lack of authorizing law". http://tucson.com/news/local/border/militias-in-arizona-thrive-despite-lack-of-authorizing-law/article_087e98b6-5d8e-5e65-ba98-ec918a309875.html. 
  8. Peter Holley (November 25, 2015). "These armed civilians are patrolling the border to keep ISIS out of America". https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/25/these-armed-civilians-are-patrolling-the-border-to-keep-isis-out-of-america/. 

Further reading[]

External links[]

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The original article can be found at Arizona Border Recon and the edit history here.