File No. 812.00/21756
In a letter from the Department of Justice, dated the 20th instant,
the statement is made that the contents of your excellency’s note
No. A–1220, of the 2d instant,1 would be promptly communicated to the
representatives of that Department in Arizona.
[Enclosure]
The United States Attorney for the District of
Arizona (
Flynn) to the Attorney General (
Gregory)
Phoenix, Ariz.,
February 14,
1918.
Sir: I have yours of February 8, 1918
(90755–2538) transmitting copies of two notes from the Mexican
Ambassador in which he complains that certain disaffected
Mexicans at Tucson and Phoenix are arming Yaqui Indians and
organizing an expedition for invasion of Sonora, Mexico.
A careful reading of the notes discloses that the alleged
activities are confined to Tucson, Arizona, and Los Angeles,
California, and I am reasonably sure that no such activities are
being carried on here at Phoenix, as no report has reached me to
that effect.
I am sending your letter and enclosures to Tucson with directions
to the assistants there to give the matter prompt attention, and
I have just called our Tucson office which reports that the
Mexican Consul there has never called the attention of our
office to the matters he reported to the Mexican Ambassador.
I note among the names of the alleged conspirators, Bartolo
Miquerray and Miguel Santa Cruz. These two with seven others
were indicted May 10, 1917, at Tucson for conspiring to violate
the President’s proclamation of October 19, 1915, to export arms
and ammunition to Mexico. Miquerray and Santa Cruz and one
Mariano Jaques were tried and convicted, and on June 7, 1917,
Miquerray was sentenced to 90 days in the Pima County jail and
fined $300; Jaques was sentenced to 60 days in the Pima County
jail and fined $100; and Santa Cruz was sentenced to 6 months in
the Pima County jail and fined $500.
One Francisco Reyna, a Villista lieutenant, was indicted with the
others, but as he was taken in Sonora, we had little hope of
ever getting him. He was later reported to have entered Yuma,
Arizona, whereupon I gave instructions to have a capias issued
and sent to the deputy marshal at Yuma for his apprehension
should he ever show up there.
Noting the name Cabecilla Reyna in the Consul’s report, gives
rise to the question of his identity with the Francisco Reyna
whom we are seeking. I am asking the Tucson office to inquire of
Consul Dominguez if this is the same man. The Consul certainly
is familiar with our prosecution of Miquerray and the others,
and if Reyna was in Tucson, a notification to our office to that
effect would have promptly resulted in his arrest. The
indictment against him
[Page 555]
and the others is still pending. I have checked the names of the
defendants on our docket with the names mentioned in the
Consul’s report, and with the above exception, the names are
entirely different.
We had Camberos bound over to the Grand Jury several years ago
and kept him under bond for over a year, but the evidence was
insufficient to warrant an indictment.
I am instructing the Tucson office to make full report to you
after it has made an investigation.
The Tucson office further reports that the nine Yaquis who were
apprehended by the military as set out in the Nogales Consul’s
report, were indicted last week at Tucson for attempting to
export arms and ammunition to Mexico and that their trial will
be had shortly.
I will be in Tucson next week and give the whole matter my
personal attention.
Sincerely yours,
