Sweep nets 102 arrests

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's crime sweep in the West Valley this week brought in 81 illegal immigrants, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Thursday.
Arpaio said the majority of those arrested were found near Wickenburg and Wittmann.
"We didn't just go into El Mirage and Surprise and do a sweep like people think we did because that's not true," Arpaio said in a press conference in downtown Phoenix.
More than 100 MCSO deputies and posse members were involved in the operation, with the mobile command center outside of the district substation office at Bell and Dysart roads in Surprise. Arpaio said the Sun City West Posse office on Stardust and R.H. Johnson boulevards contributed officers to the operation.
The majority of the arrests were traffic stops in the Wickenburg, Wittmann and Anthem areas, Arpaio said.
Capt. Paul Chagolla, an MCSO spokesman, said in 30 hours of this week's MCSO's human smuggling crackdown, 102 arrests have been made and approximately 81 were identified as illegal immigrants, 32 of whom have been booked on state charges, including some criminal charges.
Wednesday's sweeps were paid for, in part, with private funds donated to the sheriff's office in recent weeks, MCSO officials said. The office had collected more than $36,000 in donations, they said
Arpaio began asking people to send in donations after a highly publicized dispute with Gov. Janet Napolitano in which Arpaio accused her of taking $1.2 million designated to his office by the Legislature to enforce human smuggling laws. The sheriff's office lost out on another $590,000 in state money that month because its grant expired and the agency had not filed paperwork necessary to secure the money with the state Department of Public Safety.
Arpaio said he'll continue his efforts regardless of who stands in his way.
"The success of our illegal immigration enforcement efforts underscores the serious problem we face here in Maricopa County," Arpaio said.