Three illegal immigrants were shot dead and two more were wounded after falling prey to suspected bandits as they crossed into the United States from Mexico, police said. Sergeant James Ogden of Pima County Sheriff's Department said the bodies of three men were discovered early Thursday after ranchers found a group of immigrants stumbling through the desert in southwest Arizona.
One body was found by a roadside and two more bodies were found in a pick-up truck after police conducted aerial searches of the area outside Tucson, around 60 miles north of the border with Mexico.
Two of the immigrants were taken to hospital for treatment to injuries while two more were being questioned by police trying to piece together events leading to the killings.
Ogden told AFP police were working on the theory that the group had been ambushed by bandits lying in wait for them as they crossed the border.
"We're looking at the possibility of bandits," Ogden said. "They are normally armed, and stop vehicles that are being used for human trafficking. "Sometimes they take the vehicle -- and a lot times immigrants can be taken to another area and (bandits) will call family members in Mexico, and hold them for ransom."
Ogden said it was not known if there were other immigrants travelling in the group who had yet to be accounted for. "We just don't know that yet. We're trying to piece together the puzzle," he said.
The southern US-Mexico border is often used by people-smugglers and drug traffickers seeking to slip into the country unseen across stretches of isolated desert.
