[waterphone]

I live 30 miles from the Mexico border along multiple heavily used smuggling routes. I hike and backpack frequently in mountains used by those smugglers and have encountered groups of smugglers many times over the last 7+ years. I have never seen them armed, nor have I ever felt threatened by them. In almost every encounter, they get off the trail and move away before we get close, or if they get startled and there's no time to really do that, they just sort of keep their heads down and pass quickly. Everyone I know who hikes in the region, including a former Border Patrol agent who worked this area for 6+ years (and never saw an armed smuggler), has had a similar experience.

Edit: There are some areas along the border where smugglers are reported to be armed more frequently, but this is almost exclusively in areas where two cartels compete for smuggling routes and their weapons are carried to defend against the other cartels, not to use against civilians or law enforcement. They don't want to get caught with weapons in the U.S., as that significantly increases their legal exposure vs. just bales of marijuana.

[UncleEntity]

Yeah, it's like Phoenix "the kidnapping capital". Mostly just cartel members kidnapping other cartel members until they give up the drugs where your common citizen doesn't ever have to worry about it.

There was a story a while back where a girl got snatched (for leverage to get the drugs her father was sitting on) and when the kidnappers figured out they got the intended victim's friend instead they just let her go with a "umm, yeah, our bad".

Not to discount the issue, though. There are cases where the human smugglers keep people hostage until the families come up with extra money and/or sell them into slavery which is definitely no bueno.