Drugs are simply walking into the country at the San Ysidro border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego according to a new trend that U.S. Customs
and Border Protection officers call “disturbing.”
While drug-sniffing canines and X-ray technology has focused on vehicles transporting illegal drugs into the country, smugglers have instead hired
young men and boys to simply carry the drugs across in the same manner college students used to tape baggies of alcohol to their stomachs to get into
football games.
Officers at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa passenger ports apprehended 157 pedestrians, some of them teenagers, carrying a total of 285 pounds of
marijuana, 1.2 pounds of heroin, 4.7 pounds of cocaine and over nine pounds of methamphetamines concealed under their clothing between August 2008 and
February 2009, according to a release issued Tuesday.
Of those arrested, 87 percent were walking into the U.S. at the San Ysidro border crossing.
These suspects aren’t all Mexican nationals. Most of them were young U.S. citizens including three 14-year old Americans caught trying to smuggle in
more than 11 pounds of pot March 2.
Although strapping narcotics to a traveler’s torso is not a new smuggling technique, arrests since last August have burgeoned 811 percent at San
Ysidro and 316 percent at Otay Mesa compared to the same period the previous year when officers discovered a total of 23 pedestrians entering local
ports with concealed narcotics, officers said.
Most of the offenders faced narcotics smuggling charges in federal or state courts and a few were penalized with fines up to $5,000, officers saidrpleger - 3-10-2009 at 12:22 PM
Throw their asses in jail....ligui - 3-10-2009 at 12:23 PM
One wonders how much passes thru the great border patrol check point . When they stop and send me into the secondary , i watch cars after cars just
pass on thru . Their profile program sucks . .
I'm middle class white owner of my own business and pay all my taxes . Been stopped everytime for the last ten years , think they would figure it out
some day .
I see the
same crew every time , guess they just like my smile.Woooosh - 3-10-2009 at 01:34 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by rpleger
Throw their burros in jail....
they are under 18. Same thing 20 years ago with the mexican gangs in LA- they had kids too young to be prosecuted do the real nasty stuff.DianaT - 3-10-2009 at 03:34 PM
Having teenagers carry drugs across the border has been going on for a long time. In Calexico they often used teenage girls and had them strap the
drugs to their legs as they walked across.
That border is crossed by many teenagers and younger children daily----just a part of most of the families in Calexico living with one foot on each
side of the border.
When they were caught, the local law was fairly easy on them. It happened with a few of my students---ones I really liked, but like typical teenage
girls with their heads often in the wrong places, older guys in Mexicali would pay attention to them, woo them, and bingo---turn them into drug
carriers.
.