The Police in Sonoita are out of control!
- Thread starter dirtsurfer
- Start date
Looks like things are retuning back to somewhat normal. Thursday 27th, heading south arrived at the border +/-10:30am, lots of traffic from Gila Bend to Lukeville, thought I be waiting for sure. Pulled right up with only a car or two at the initial ( US side ) processing point. Remained in the right lane, green light, no search at the first inspection, waved through by the MexFeds. Held the speed limit through town, proper stops, on our way.
Coming back to the US, Tuesday 01. Rolled through Sonoita, no fuss-no muss. Started up the hill before the straight away, and about 100 yards from the Wreck At The Reef billboard, traffic stopped, backed up...9:01am. Been a long time since I've been backed up that far, last time years ago was a 6 hour wait. This time however, traffic always kept inching forward, and by 10:10am I was through the border. I was really surprised, and thankful.
One thing you notice when sitting in line are all the cars heading north in the south bound lane. Mexico plated cars, understandable. But the AZ plated cars??? About ten cars in front of us someone left a little space between them and the car in front of them, sure enough a north bound car in the south bound lane just dove right in the space. Sat at a 45 degree angle until traffic started moving again. Can't comprehend how arrogant you must have to be to think it is somehow acceptable.
Coming back to the US, Tuesday 01. Rolled through Sonoita, no fuss-no muss. Started up the hill before the straight away, and about 100 yards from the Wreck At The Reef billboard, traffic stopped, backed up...9:01am. Been a long time since I've been backed up that far, last time years ago was a 6 hour wait. This time however, traffic always kept inching forward, and by 10:10am I was through the border. I was really surprised, and thankful.
One thing you notice when sitting in line are all the cars heading north in the south bound lane. Mexico plated cars, understandable. But the AZ plated cars??? About ten cars in front of us someone left a little space between them and the car in front of them, sure enough a north bound car in the south bound lane just dove right in the space. Sat at a 45 degree angle until traffic started moving again. Can't comprehend how arrogant you must have to be to think it is somehow acceptable.
brokenwave
Guest
We crossed back into the US at noon today, there was a 20 min wait, 2 lanes were open. CBP agent took our passports
scanned them and sent us on our way. Far left lane was making cars go thru the X-RAY Monster. We picked the right lane of course.
We were supposed to go home on Tues, glad we didn't, the line was close to 2 miles long most of the morning and afternoon.
We saw one Policia at the red cross stop at the south end of town. As we crossed over the hill where speed limit drops to 40kph,
we saw that Policia hung a U-turn to the side of the road to face us as if he was shooting radar. (like they have working radar guns, LOL)
Well since we were doing 35kph and the 5 cars behind us too, he didn't have any easy marks. We saw another Policia further north.
Lot's of people going south many cars had Cali and Texas plates, on a Wed? Wow
Probably some of the best May weather I seen in Cholla in years, It's just starting to get warm, humidity still isn't a big problem.
After spending 19 days there, we watched the water warm from a Brrrr 71 to a not bad 76.
FYI, the flies are getting to be a big problem at most the places we went to eat, the kitchen counters in JJ's kitchen were thick with them.
I passed on the food, beer only.
All the Panga's doing illegal shrimping are dumping the heads and waste on the side of the road north of the windmills, don't drive
down Calle Ocania (street where the Autozone is) near the RR tracks, it's bad, really bad.
So million's more flies to add to the normal summer fly population.
There's a public pay beach in between the Esmerelda and Sonoran Sun resorts, $5 per car, nice beach about 150 ft wide,
with porta potty's and you get to experience all the vendors the people at the resorts do. Jet ski rentals, banana boat rides,
put you name on a grain of rice, hat's imitation Cuban cigars etc.
Look for the chain link fence with a parking sign in the gate.
I got to meet forum member Idyllwild and his wife, nice people.
scanned them and sent us on our way. Far left lane was making cars go thru the X-RAY Monster. We picked the right lane of course.
We were supposed to go home on Tues, glad we didn't, the line was close to 2 miles long most of the morning and afternoon.
We saw one Policia at the red cross stop at the south end of town. As we crossed over the hill where speed limit drops to 40kph,
we saw that Policia hung a U-turn to the side of the road to face us as if he was shooting radar. (like they have working radar guns, LOL)
Well since we were doing 35kph and the 5 cars behind us too, he didn't have any easy marks. We saw another Policia further north.
Lot's of people going south many cars had Cali and Texas plates, on a Wed? Wow
Probably some of the best May weather I seen in Cholla in years, It's just starting to get warm, humidity still isn't a big problem.
After spending 19 days there, we watched the water warm from a Brrrr 71 to a not bad 76.
FYI, the flies are getting to be a big problem at most the places we went to eat, the kitchen counters in JJ's kitchen were thick with them.
I passed on the food, beer only.
All the Panga's doing illegal shrimping are dumping the heads and waste on the side of the road north of the windmills, don't drive
down Calle Ocania (street where the Autozone is) near the RR tracks, it's bad, really bad.
So million's more flies to add to the normal summer fly population.
There's a public pay beach in between the Esmerelda and Sonoran Sun resorts, $5 per car, nice beach about 150 ft wide,
with porta potty's and you get to experience all the vendors the people at the resorts do. Jet ski rentals, banana boat rides,
put you name on a grain of rice, hat's imitation Cuban cigars etc.
Look for the chain link fence with a parking sign in the gate.
I got to meet forum member Idyllwild and his wife, nice people.
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Mexico Joe
Cholla Bay 4 Life
Damn, so Tuesday is the new Monday?! That's crazy. That many people decided to stay and return Tuesday and still had to wait?! On Sunday I also saw a lot of Cali and Texas plates as well. I left Phoenix Sunday morning at 6am, RP by 940... On the way down I was trying to judge the amount of traffic going North as I was planning on returning the same day and was hoping Sunday wasn't the new Monday. There definitely was a steady flow North on Sunday but they must have been getting them through the border because when I came back through at 330pm with my CENTER CONSOLE there was no wait.... WAIT HUH.... ?! More on that to follow.... This weekend I felt the Sonoyta police presence was non existent although on the way home I did see they had someone pulled over but I turned on the non existent short cut street that you're not supposed to go on and couldn't see if they were Mexican or American plated... Left Phoenix at 6am and was back in Central Phoenix at 6pm... Two or three trips ago we went and looked at the public beach entrance that Broken told us about. Surprised to see that the last two weekends there weren't any cars in the lot. I wonder if it's not really known about yet??? I can't wait for the MI PLAYA scenario where there's fully loaded diapers floating next to you while catching some tasty rays...
brokenwave
Guest
Joe unless you actually drive into the lot you can't see how many parked cars there are.
I willing to bet $5 will keep many locals away. I won't go on Sat or Sun.
It looks like a Gringo is running it so I don't think it will get out of control.
We went to the Mi Playa beach a couple of times and it was pretty clean. They have a big dumpster for trash
and 3 porta potty's @ 10 pesos. We went on a Friday and Tues and there were less than 25 people there.
You get to see more sea life there, lot's of pelicans, other birds and we saw 2 sea lions cruising off the beach.
I willing to bet $5 will keep many locals away. I won't go on Sat or Sun.
It looks like a Gringo is running it so I don't think it will get out of control.
We went to the Mi Playa beach a couple of times and it was pretty clean. They have a big dumpster for trash
and 3 porta potty's @ 10 pesos. We went on a Friday and Tues and there were less than 25 people there.
You get to see more sea life there, lot's of pelicans, other birds and we saw 2 sea lions cruising off the beach.
jbed
Guest
Got nailed twice in the past year $100 for 10kmh over and had to go to courthouse with my travel trailer. A no stop which I admit was a 98% stop and cost me $40 after a failed $20 would not cut it. I never was the gringo speed demon that some are, but now going through town I do the speed limit and stop and wait for a few moments. Now I know...
We were driving back to AZ from RP 2 days ago on Sunday and got pulled over in Sonoyta. We definitely were not speeding. They spoke very little English but managed to tell us we owed them $160 for speeding. We said we didn't have any cash. I only had $20 and my boyfriend didn't have any cash. We had spent about $500 in Rocky Point before coming back to AZ. I told the cops we would go to the police station and pay the fine. They said it was closed. They told us to follow them to an ATM which we did. My bf was unable to make his debit card work in the ATM machine. He told them we couldn't get any money. I had a $20 bill and offered it to them just to get out of there. They took it and that was that. Even though, fortunately, we only ended up paying $20. it really turned me off from going to Rocky Point anymore. These policios are causing people to not want to return to Rocky Point and therefore, losing out on a lot of money. I wish there was some way these crooked cops could be controlled. It's so wrong! It concerns me to think that these cops can do whatever they want and get away with it. I doubt I will go back to Rocky Point in the future.
brokenwave
Guest
I keep one wallet for driving in Mexico, with my DL, Mex Insurance card and less than 500 pesos and less than $20US. No CC or debit card.
My regular wallet is safely hidden away.
My regular wallet is safely hidden away.
Mexico Joe
Cholla Bay 4 Life
Jesus Christ... PLEASE STOP OFFERING MONEY.
"I wish there was some way these crooked cops could be controlled."
There is. It's called not giving in and GIVING THEM MONEY.
So what do you do then? If you don't give them money? How do you move on?
brokenwave
Guest
Here's the easy way as posted earlier.
I keep one wallet for driving in Mexico, with my DL, Mex Insurance card and less than 500 pesos and less than $20 US. No CC or debit card.
My regular wallet is safely hidden away.
My son used this method to pay, Nada, ZERO, when he was stopped in April. They must have felt sorry for him.
He only had $4 and 20 pesos in his wallet with his CC, debit card and extra cash safely hidden away.
He explained he used most of his money to put gas in his car.
Time is money to the cops so they moved on to another fatter easy target.
Mexico Joe
Cholla Bay 4 Life
First and easiest way IMHO is to drive about 5mph under the 40KPH (25MPH) speed limit. Until they start pulling people over for going WELL UNDER the limit it's absolutely fool proof. I do about 18mph. It's so blatantly slow that not even the most crooked cop will try and pretend you were "speeding".
Second best scenario. Pull out your phone or GOPRO and record your drive through SONOYTA. Then proceed to step 2.1 below. Don't mention the video at first because IT'S A GAME and you might as well fuck with them a little bit before you TRUMP their ass with a video showing your SPEEDO doing 36KPH...
2.1 scenario. Absolutely argue until you're blue in the face. Tell them that you know the radar gun is fixed at 61mph. Tell them to call the JEFE whos name and number is posted in this thread and has been circulating around FB. Tell them you already know the game. That they pull people over and tell them they were speeding or not stopping at stop signs. Only if you think the conversation is going nowhere then and only then HIT THEM WITH THE VIDEO. When you're driving away with no BRIBE you'll appreciate the WIN.
When you come to a STOP SIGN in Sonoyta. Please come to a complete stop. Now turn your head from side to side and look in both directions. Now glance in your rear view mirror. Now look straight ahead. See any cops???? If answer is no, you are now free to proceed. If answer is YES, then sit there for another 4 seconds until it is completely OBVIOUS that they see you. In fact, I like to STARE the cops RIGHT IN THEIR EYES to COMMUNICATE that I KNOW THE GAME. As a mutual player in the game I am respected. We make EYE CONTACT while I'm motionless it is now safe to proceed.
Third best scenario is the one BrokenWave mentions with my own little touch. No money in the wallet. None. Fuck the five dollar gesture. Not giving in is the absolute key to this scenario.
Remember. This is PSHYCHOLOGY. Know what the cop is going to say before you get pulled over. Of course this asshole is going to tell you that the police station is CLOSED. They say that on Sundays for leverage. KNOW the current prices for traffic violations in Sonoyta. If you give the cop a bribe that is 6 times the amount you should have paid at the court house then this problem is going to continue for a lot of years.
Some asshole my GF works with was going down to Mechico for the first time ever. She told him explicitly DO NOT SPEED in Sonoyta. Speed limit is 40KPH or 25MPH if you're a moron and didn't know Mexico has the metric system. Told him about stop signs. Told him ABSOLUTELY do NOT speed. She told him he will have people riding his bumper, going around him on the other side of the road, anything and everything but DO NOT let that persuade you to want to go faster or think that it is ok to go a little over 40kph.
Welp... what do you guys think happened???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COMPLETE SHOCKER RIGHT?! Guy gets pulled over apparently TWICE before getting through Sonoyta and dished out $200 in bribe money!!! FUCKING COMPLETE MORON here... I mean, the kind that give Americans bad names.
Queen of Kings
Guest
Finally, somebody gets it. Don't break the law and you most likely won't get stopped.
Seriously, what is wrong with you?
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Mexico Joe
Cholla Bay 4 Life
You're such a troll.
Queen of Kings
Guest
Thank you. Coming from you it is indeed a high compliment!
Queen of Kings
Guest
I guess I live in the real world. What seems to be wrong with you?