A married couple who both hold Columbus Village trustee positions are expected to officially resign next month.

Columbus Mayor Nicole Lawson confirmed that William "Bud" Canfield and Jeane Canfield will be resigning to move to Wisconsin.

Lawson said Bud Canfield had an existing medical condition that was recently exacerbated, and they decided to move closer to family members.

Bud Canfield was in the middle of his four-year term as a trustee, and Jeane Canfield was just elected this month to a four-year term.

Bud was the last remaining trustee in office from before the gun smuggling case that rocked the border community last year and prompted the resignations of the mayor, police chief and trustee Blas "Woody" Gutierrez.

Lawson said the Canfields have not submitted their resignations yet, but she expects them to do so next month, effective April 30th.

She has notified Municipal League attorneys of the impending resignations.

Lawson said once the resignations are official, she will request letters of interest from Columbus residents who would like to be appointed to the village trustees. She will then select two candidates from those letters and submit her choices to the trustees for approval.

The first defendant in the gun smuggling case that involved the Columbus mayor, police chief and village trustee has been sentenced by a federal judge in Las Cruces.

Judge Robert Brack sentenced 27-year-old Vicente Carreon to 46 months in prison during a hearing Wednesday. Brack also ordered that Carreon be placed under supervised release for a period of three years after completing his prison term.

Brack reportedly rejected a prosecutor's request that Carreon be given a stiffer sentence.

Carreon pleaded guilty to one count of smuggling firearms from the United States and one count of conspiracy -- admitting that he assisted in the smuggling into Mexico of at least 30 nine-millimeter pistols purchased from Chaparral Guns in Chaparral New Mexico.

Carreon assisted by removing serial numbers as well as U-P-C codes from firearms boxes, purchasing a backpack used in transporting the firearms and transporting the firearms to a stash house in El Paso.

Last summer, 14 people were charged in federal indictments involving arms smuggling to Mexican cartels. Columbus Police Chief Angelo Vega, Mayor Eddie Espinoza, and a trustee, Blas "Woody" Gutierrez, were among the defendants charged.

Federal prosecutors say the defendants were part of a conspiracy in which straw buyers bought about 200 firearms from a dealer in Chaparral and sent them to Mexican drug gang members.

A special border task force and increased federal support are being credited for helping reduce illegal migrant traffic along the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports (http://bit.ly/yPEq3T) that ranchers on New Mexico's border praised this week the Southwestern Border Security Task Force for the dramatic drop in border arrests in just six years.

In 2005, government figures show that 122,679 people were arrested trying to enter illegally through the El Paso Sector, which includes New Mexico. Last year, only 10,345 were apprehended

in the same area - a more than 90 percent drop.

James Johnson, a rancher near Columbus, says he hadn't seen illegal border traffic this quiet in 30 years.

The task force is made up of a coalition of local and federal authorities.

Border patrol agents say smuggling operations have streamlined into smaller packs of younger, more aggressive men who are increasing their use of the remote Texas-New Mexico desert. The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that agents say these younger illegal immigrants, some carrying 50 pounds of drugs for several days, travel in groups of two to five and evade capture by heading quickly to the mountain canyons of the Texas-New Mexico border. The change comes as smugglers try to adjust to beefed-up, high-tech security along the border that has resulted in large drops of border arrests since 2006. Bobby Stephens, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent, says to combat smaller smuggler groups in remote border regions, agents are using horse patrols so they can move faster.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in New Mexico say they've made an unusual seizure -bundles of marijuana stashed inside wood-framed and mirrored quinceanera plaques. An 18-year-old Colorado woman has been arrested in the case. A pickup truck entered the Columbus port from neighboring Palomas, Mexico, about noon Sunday and the vehicle was selected for a secondary exam. Officers found numerous boxes filled with quinceanera decorations and noticed an anomaly in several of the plaques. CBP officers dismantled the plaques and recovered 104 pounds of marijuana wrapped in 100 thin, rectangular wrapped packages. Authorities say Tahlia Arana Perea, of Denver, was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. It was unclear Monday whether Perea has legal representation yet.

Luna County Sheriff Raymond Cobos is among New Mexico border-area sheriffs slated to meet with Colorado sheriffs this week in Las Cruces.

Lieutenant Jon Mooridian said the meeting was organized after some Colorado sheriffs indicated an interest in learning more about area narcotics and human trafficking issues, how the border is patrolled, and seeing the terrain first-hand.

Mooridian said often officials have misconceptions about the challenges of border law enforcement, including the remoteness and rough terrain along parts of New Mexico's 54-mile international border with Mexico.

Luna County is part of a five-county border sheriff's coalition involving Dona Ana, Hidalgo, Grant and Otero counties. Mooridian said those agencies are participating in this week's information-sharing session with the Colorado sheriffs. He added that as many as 10 New Mexico sheriffs may be there, and up to 25 Colorado sheriffs.

The meeting is taking place Tuesday and Wednesday at a Las Cruces hotel, and will involve escorting the visitors to see the international border firsthand.