5 burned bodies could be bad drug deal

Authorities found five bodies burned beyond recognition in this SUV Saturday in the desert near Interstate 8 in western Pinal County.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the killing of five people found burned beyond recognition Saturday morning in an SUV in the Vekol Valley area in the western part of the county.

“This could have been a drug deal gone bad, or done for revenge or retaliation,” Sheriff Paul Babeu said.

Authorities found the vehicle and its dead occupants in the desert near milepost 151 of Interstate 8.

About 8:30 a.m., a Border Patrol officer using binoculars saw a vehicle smoldering from a distance.

When authorities located the SUV, it was completely burned with one person in the rear passenger seat and the other four bodies laying down in the back, Babeu said.

There were no bodies in the driver’s seat or front passenger seat. Babeu said it is possible the driver may have left the vehicle.

“This is significant,” he said.

Though the investigation is just beginning, Babeu said “a significant number of clues” indicate the deaths are connected with drug trafficking and not human trafficking.

“Human smugglers leave them (people traveling in the group who are too slow) behind but don’t kill them,” Babeu said. “This has none of those clues.”

One possibility, Babeu said, is the killings could have been done by a “rip crew,” a drug gang that steals drugs or money from other gangs.
Babeu indicated other scenarios are possible, but all related to the illegal drug trade.

Babeu said it is too early to know whether the five victims died when the vehicle burned or whether they were killed first and then burned.

The burned SUV fits the description of a white Expedition spotted by a Border Patrol agent at 4:30 a.m.

Babeu said a Border Patrol officer attempted to make contact with the vehicle when he saw it off-road along I-8, but the driver fled. The officer put out an “attempt to locate” call to other Border Patrol agents and other agencies, he said.

Sometime between 7 to 7:30 a.m., a Border Patrol agent saw vehicle tracks off I-8 indicating a vehicle made a strong impact when it left the roadway and landed off the road, Babeu said.