SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Ariz. (KGUN) — Jim Chilton, owner of Chilton Ranch near Arivaca, Arizona, is digging his own hole with people who cross his land without wanting to get caught.

He said he wants to let people know what's going on on his land and give them a fuller picture of illegal immigration and smuggling that's happening at the southern border.

Chilton said he believes there is a difference between migrants who want to be caught so they can apply for asylum and migrants who are trying to escape law enforcement.

“What I'm concerned about is people in camouflage and drug dealers,” Chilton said.

Two years ago, one of Chilton's cowboys had a nasty encounter with someone suspected of possessing drugs on the property.

“One of our cowboys got beaten up by some cartel guys, they took his cell phone and all his money, he actually got beaten up,” Chilton said.

He showed KGUN9 a gap in the border wall directly across from his fence that he says would have made it easy for the pair to enter the country: They slipped through the gap and used a gate they built to get onto his ranch.

Chilton showed KGUN9 footage from five cameras hidden on the property. He said he has footage that shows 3,050 people wearing camouflage and carrying backpacks crossing the ranch from 2021 to 2023. Prior to that, he said, he averaged just over 200 images from the motion sensor cameras.

Related: “I just don't want them to die”: The reality for border ranchers

He says drug cartels work with people crossing the border to help them evade law enforcement.

“They talk to people as they go through, they direct them,” Chilton said. “They see the Border Patrol and they tell them to all sit down. They're in camo so the Border Patrol doesn't see them. It pisses me off.”

On the way to the border, passing Chilton's ranch, he pointed to what he called drug tracks. When asked how he knew it was from humans, he replied, “Cows don't walk up to the fence or there's no way there would be tracks.”

Alexis Lamanjour (KGUN)

Last year, Customs and Border Protection seized more than 27,000 pounds of fentanyl nationwide, 44 percent of which was seized at the Nogales port of entry, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said, but that's only a fraction of the amount coming through.

Related: Nogales is first target of new anti-fentanyl campaign

“That's probably 5 to 10 percent of what I've said and I've heard over 90 percent of it reach communities across the country,” he said.

Dannels says the drugs that are impacting Cochise County the most are fentanyl and methamphetamine.

“These are hard drugs, these are drugs that are coming into the community, they're highly addictive and they have a high death toll,” he said.

Chilton and Dannels agree that increased border surveillance would help prevent drug smuggling and illegal crossings at the border.