Immigration Clearinghouse

"It's a brand-new team. They've been bled in." - Minuteman child killer Shawna Forde discussing Arivaca murders with FBI informants

Documents and audio tapes released in Pima County Superior Court this month, tie Minuteman Shawna Forde and Jason “Gunny” Bush to the murders of 9 year old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul on May 30, 2009.

Two confidential informants for the FBI say they told agents in April 2009 that Forde was recruiting people to raid a house she believed was filled with illicit drugs, money and guns. The informants were Colorado Minutemen as has been reported here and by reporter Scott North of the Everett Herald. The documents indicate neither was paid for his information, nor were they cooperating to avoid prosecution in any unrelated cases.

The documents say Forde, 42, and others were on the verge of hitting additional targets when she, Jason Bush, 35, and Albert Gaxiola, 43, were arrested on June 12, 2009.

According to Kim Smith of the Arizona Daily Star;

Both men are described as active members of the border-defense movement who routinely camp on the border so they can spot illegal immigrants and report them to the U.S. Border Patrol.

One of them told investigators that he met Forde in October 2007 while on a mission outside Arivaca. He said that in April 2009, Forde called him, saying the other men she knew in the border-defense movement were “sissies,” and she was impressed with his courage.

The informant says Forde knew rocket-propelled grenades, drugs and millions of dollars were being funneled into the U.S. through Arivaca and wanted him to help her protect the community.

Not wanting to get involved, the man told Forde to call another man.

The second man says Forde shared her intelligence with him several times in person, over the phone and by e-mail.

Once Forde made arrangements to meet with him, the second man said he deemed her serious and contacted his FBI handler, who instructed him to keep gathering information.

The two men say they and two other men met with Forde at an Aurora, Colo., truck stop in late April 2009, at which time Forde said she wanted them to force their way into an Arivaca house and get control of the occupants.

They said she told them a second team would then come in and gather up the drugs, money and weapons, which would be sold to help the Minutemen American Defense, an organization based in the state of Washington.

One of them relayed the information to the FBI a few days later. The other corroborated his account of the meeting. They were told to keep on gathering information.

Forde later called one of the men to ask if he could be in Arivaca within 18 hours, but he said he made excuses about why he couldn’t. About 10 days later, they learned of the slayings.

The men said they immediately suspected Forde, suspicions they said were confirmed when Forde called an associate to help Bush, who had been shot in the leg.

Forde told their associate that Bush was shot while patrolling the desert, but they suspected Bush had really been shot during the home invasion, they told authorities.

On June 7, one of the informants told Forde in a conversation taped by the FBI that he and the other informant wouldn’t be able to drive to Tucson for a few days. He also told her he didn’t want to bring one of the other participants in their truck-stop meeting because he didn’t trust him.

Forde replied that she did trust him and went on to say: “We can train him. We can start him on soft targets. Our hands are already dirty. We’ve got to know he can pull the trigger.”

Forde then put Bush on the phone. After saying he was recovering well from his gunshot wound, Bush told the informant: “We have a couple new areas; we have our eye on a couple potentials. We’ll be ready to go Thursday or Friday.”

When Forde got back on the phone, the report indicates she bragged about Bush’s toughness and said: “It’s a brand-new team. They’ve been bled in.”

Perhaps this is the reason Laine Lawless suddenly abandoned Forde after spending more than a year defending and trying to justify her actions. It’s also interesting to note that the Feds seem to have infiltrated the more radical elements of the border vigilante movement. It’s also lends credence to the rumors swirling around Arizona that Neo Nazi Jason “JT” Ready is also an FBI informant, something he denies, as would be expected.