The following news release was issued by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office:

WICKENBURG - Several traffic stops were made by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s human

azfamily.com

smuggling unit last night in the area of Wickenburg, west of Phoenix, which resulted in the arrest of nine (9) more illegal aliens.

“Despite the Governor’s attempts to stop me from fighting illegal immigration, my deputies are under my order to continue to enforce all aspects of the human smuggling laws,” says Arpaio.

Arpaio says he is deeply concerned that either the Governor or the DPS director may have ordered DPS officers to not arrest all co-conspirators involved in the class 4 felony of human smuggling. If either Governor Napolitano or DPS Director Vanderpool gave the order to ignore these serious criminal violations, it could represent a serious error in judgment.

Sheriff’s deputies have already arrested 956 on the class 4 felony charge and County Attorney Andrew Thomas has been successful in the prosecution of 90% of those cases adjudicated.

Two drop houses were also discovered by Sheriff’s deputies in Mesa in the past five days netting 18 arrests including one person with a warrant out of Tennessee for the rape of a minor.

Because of the illegal immigration activity in Mesa, Arpaio is holding off and gathering intelligence information from deputies before venturing into Mesa with a crime suppression operation.