files. Before Trump took office for the second time, Blanche served as Trump’s personal attorney, unsuccessfully defending Trump against criminal charges in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case in New York while also representing Trump in federal cases involving alleged wrongdoing. He continues to earn his place at Trump’s table, most recently by indicting former FBI director James Comey for allegedly “threat- ening” the president with an Instagram post involving seashells arranged to read, “86 47.” During his address, Blanche echoed Lyons’ bellicose pronouncements, claiming that the DOJ had brought 1,400 cases in the past year for assaults on federal officers. (He did not share how many resulted in convic- tions versus how many, like in the case of the Washington, D.C., man who flung a Subway sandwich at an immigration officer, were laughed out of court.) Blanche promised law enforcement officers that “we’re going to make sure that nobody can touch you without facing the full wrath of the federal government.” Not to belittle those actually assaulted in the line of duty, but “touch” is a rather low bar. Regarding America’s never-ending drug wars, Blanche assured the crowd that he would make sure it remained never-ending. “For the first time in history, we’re treating them like terrorists and we’re blowing them up,” he said, in obvious reference to the country’s constitutionally suspect military strikes against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean. “And that’s legal and it’s right and it hopefully will create a disincentive for drug dealers to do what they’re doing.” Or unlucky fishermen. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and sometimes critic of the president, has repeatedly pointed out that the strikes are illegal, immoral and do not comport with U.S. law, which does not prescribe the death penalty for transporting illicit drugs. “This is akin to what China does, to what Iran does with drug dealers,” Paul said in October. “They summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public. So, it’s wrong.” SHOTGUNS, PEPPERBALLS AND SHOOT-EM-UPS Many of the merchant booths on the floor of the exhibit hall were, admittedly, perversely intriguing — perhaps none more so than that of the Chandler-based company VirTra, one of the sponsors of the event. VirTra creates “immersive training simulators” for law enforcement agencies such as Customs and Border Protection. The VirTra exhibit featured five projection screens for a nearly 360-degree immersion into a video scenario involving an angry driver armed with an axe handle. A participant “officer” stands in the center of the room with a gas-powered pistol, with which one can “shoot” the advancing madman, attempt de-escalation or use less lethal options, such as tear gas. CBP utilizes 47 custom scenarios, according to the VirTra employee running the computer immersion program. During one session, another employee blew away the dude with the ax handle. Another booth of note was a small one set up by the shotgun manufacturer Mossberg, which featured a specialty gun the firm is marketing to the military and Border Patrol. A mustachioed vendor pumped the 990 SkySweeper as “Mossberg’s solution to the emerging drone threats that we’re seeing all over the globe.” Supposedly, the gun has a range of up to 100 yards. PepperBall’s display was, as one might expect, popular with the Border Patrol crowd. The vendors there went through the display of projectile guns, modeled on paintball guns, that shoot projectiles filled with Pelargonic Acid Vanillylamide (PAV) powder. The chemical irritant can incapac- itate someone briefly, painfully affecting eyesight and the respiratory system. The company also manufactures a handheld device that looks like a small flashlight and can fire one round of PAV powder. One variant, marketed to law enforcement, comes with a pointed tung- sten carbide tip that can be used to break a windshield glass, with the payload to be delivered through the opening. Civilians can buy one on Amazon, minus the tip, for $60. FROM UKRAINE WITH LOVE A number of all-terrain vehicles caught New Times’ eye, chief among these being the N1200, a box-like, amphibious vehicle straight from the battlefields of the Russia-Ukraine war. Manufactured by the Ukrainian company SHERP and sold in the Western hemisphere by SHERP USA, it’s relatively lightweight at 5,000 pounds, can carry up to nine persons and paddles through bodies of water on its ginormous, balloon-like tires. John Gavin, an executive with SHERP USA, told New Times that the N1200 is a logistics vehicle, used for “extremely long range, extremely remote access to places where there’s just not a road or a way to get out there.” It can also be used to barrel through ice-bound rivers and lakes, even if the ice breaks. So far, Gavin said they’ve only sold one to the Border Patrol, for use in North Dakota. The floor was awash with companies marketing electronic surveillance towers and drones, but the sleekest was a bright orange Wingtra 11, a fixed-wing mapping drone on display in the Verizon booth. A Verizon employee on hand claimed the company uses the drone in cases of natural disasters and shares them with local authorities. Resembling a small stingray, the drone is actually made by a company head- quartered in Switzerland. The creepiest device by far was a mobile surveillance tower sold by the Charlotte-based company Reconview. This multi-sided beast boasts surveillance cameras, bullet-proof glass and a dark brown exterior pockmarked by dents caused by AR-15s fired at its exterior. The interior of the tower looks like a prison cell. According to photos found online, it does come in white, which might work better in Arizona. The company website promises the monstrosity is climate-controlled with both heat and air conditioning, but it would be interesting to test it out in the Sonoran Desert’s some- times 120-degree-plus summers. Border Czar Tom Homan speaks at the 2026 Border Security Expo. (Border Security Expo Photo by Brian Kanof) Acting ICE director Todd Lyons sits for a panel discussion with Customs and Border Patrol executive director Chris Holtzer (middle) and Tucson sector Chief Patrol Agent John Morris. (Border Security Expo Photo by Brian Kanof) (Stephen Lemons)
