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The Obama administration says it is increasing border security and cracking down more on drug trafficking and smuggling from Mexico into Southwestern states such as Arizona.

On Friday, U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke said the federal government has upped illegal drug case filings by 99 percent since 2008, filed 25,200 illegal immigration cases and boosted wiretaps by 50 percent for cases related to money shipped from Arizona to Mexico and other foreign locations.

On Monday, the White House released additional figures as administration officials met with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, Attorney General Terry Goddard, Burke and other state officials.

The White House offered the following stats:

K9 patrol units along the border have been increased to 13 from five.

384 agents were added at Southwestern ports of entry along with five high-tech detection units to the six already deployed at Mexican border crossings.

$85 million in illicit cash was seized along the border over the last 12 months — a 22 percent jump from the preceding 12 months.

Federal agencies seized 1,404 firearms and 1.62 million kilograms of drugs along the border the past 12 months — increases of 22 and 14 percent, respectively.

Former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton said more resources are being focused on border and immigration cases as well as crimes on Indian lands and white-collar and mortgage fraud crimes since Burke took over as federal prosecutor in 2009 and the Obama took office.

Charlton — now a private attorney for the law offices of Gallagher & Kennedy PA — served as U lowest fee payday loans.S. Attorney for Arizona from 2001 until the end of 2006. Charlton exited from that post as part of Bush administration purge.

After 9/11 there was a heavy focus of federal investigation into national security and potential terrorism cases, he said, adding the Bush administration also focused on child pornography.

He expects federal pursuit of child and illegal sex rings to continue under Obama. “It’s still a very serious problem,” he said. But he said the Obama administration appears to be moving more aggressively and with more resources on white collar and mortgage fraud cases as well as on the immigration front.

The statistics were released as Brewer and U.S. Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain press for more federal resources along the border. Brewer, in particular, has argued the state is under siege from drug cartels and smuggling rings and says more border walls, air patrols are needed.

“Administration officials continue to say that the border is as safe as it has ever been, yet the feds are posting signs 80 miles from the Arizona border warning Americans to stay away from our public lands,” Brewer said in a e-mail promoting her reelection bid. “We need action from the federal government not signs ceding sovereign U.S. territory to international drug cartels and human smugglers.”

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