BajaNomad

Another drug tunnel found at US-Mexico border

BajaNews - 11-27-2010 at 03:33 PM

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/world/11/27/10/ne...

Reuters
11/27/2010

SAN DIEGO – US border agents said on Friday they had found a multimillion dollar drug-smuggling tunnel under the US-Mexico border that is more sophisticated than one discovered less than three weeks ago in the same area.

The tunnel is half a mile long and reaches to about 90 feet deep, contains two entrances on the US side of the border and is outfitted with advanced rail, electrical and ventilation systems, officials with the San Diego Tunnel Task Force said.

On the Mexican side the underground passage, which is tall enough for a grown man to stand in, emerges in the kitchen of a stucco house in Tijuana, where it is capped with a hydraulic steel door, the officials said.

The tunnel walls are fortified with wood and cinderblock supports, and the Tijuana house has a garage large enough to accommodate deliveries by large trucks.

Eight people have been arrested in connection with the discovery and agents seized more than 20 tons of marijuana, said Tim Durst, assistant special agent in charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations.

"I think this was the cartel's favorite tunnel," Durst said at a press conference to announce the bust. "It took at least one to two million dollars to build this tunnel, but if you think about the returns, it's worth it."

The tunnel starts with a single shaft on the Mexican side of the border but branches into a Y-shape with two passages leading to separate warehouses in the Otay Mesa district of San Diego. Another spur leads to an underground storage room where agents say they found 6,000 pounds of marijuana.

The tunnel was discovered on Thursday morning when agents from the Task Force conducting surveillance noticed suspicious activity by a truck arriving at one of the Otay Mesa warehouses, authorities said.

When US Border Patrol agents stopped the truck at a traffic checkpoint, they discovered more than 27,000 pounds of marijuana inside, officials said.

The tunnel was found about 650 feet south of another sophisticated drug tunnel which was discovered on November 2.

That shaft, which measured 1,800 feet and was also equipped with a rail system, lighting and ventilation, yielded some 30 tons of marijuana, one of the largest such seizures on the border in recent years.

Mexico is in the grip of a raging drug war that has killed more than 30,000 people south of the border since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on powerful drug gangs.

Mexican cartels have bored scores of tunnels under the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years to beat ramped-up security at ports of entry and the rugged spaces in between. Nearly all of them linked cities on either side of Mexico's border with California and Arizona.

Tijuana is the principal gateway for drugs entering California from Mexico. Last month, authorities there seized more than 100 tonnes of marijuana valued at more than $340 million in Mexico's biggest pot haul to date.

Several federal and local police agencies are part of a special task force to search for tunnels running under the border in the San Diego area, which has soft, loamy soil that lends itself to tunneling.

-----

Photo:

Rails are seen inside a tunnel discovered in Tijuana November 25, 2010. According to local media, authorities found a drug smuggler's tunnel linking the northern border city of Tijuana with the United States. The tunnel was fully operational with a ventilation system and electricity, and rails for the transportation of narcotics.

Photo by Jorge Duenes

tj-drug-tunnel-nov27-2011.jpg - 23kB

DENNIS - 11-27-2010 at 03:47 PM

Jeeeezo...what's goin' on here? Arn't there Lazers or Sonar to find these anomalies in the ground? Eventually, the whole border is going to cave in.
How do Bunker-Buster Bombs find their target?

BajaBlanca - 11-27-2010 at 03:56 PM

so close to the first one !! who woulda thunk.

Bajahowodd - 11-27-2010 at 05:27 PM

Nice tile work! :P

BooJumMan - 11-27-2010 at 05:30 PM

Probably unrealistic, but you always wonder if there was no war on drugs. Would there then be no war in TJ?

BajaBruno - 11-27-2010 at 05:32 PM

Dennis, Homeland Security is using ground penetrating radar to find tunnels, but it is only good to about 15 meters down. This tunnel was nearly twice that.

toneart - 11-27-2010 at 05:37 PM

Jeezo! For a few pesos more they could have installed some decorative lighting. :P

bajamedic - 11-27-2010 at 05:43 PM

Wow, that is a lot of medicine, ha ha ha, I just crack myself up. JH:lol::lol:

Cypress - 11-27-2010 at 05:45 PM

Legalize Pot! It's just plain stupid to keep funding the drug cartels. The law enforcement guys could go for the real criminals or go home.

DENNIS - 11-27-2010 at 05:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BajaBruno
Dennis, Homeland Security is using ground penetrating radar to find tunnels, but it is only good to about 15 meters down. This tunnel was nearly twice that.



That makes it around a hundred feet below the surface? I didn't see that part.
Thanks, Bruno.

durrelllrobert - 11-28-2010 at 11:03 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Jeeeezo...what's goin' on here? Arn't there Lazers or Sonar to find these anomalies in the ground? Eventually, the whole border is going to cave in.
How do Bunker-Buster Bombs find their target?
great military technologies for Afgahnastan but DHS doesn't want in military involvement along border, except for the Predator drones.

motoged - 11-28-2010 at 11:22 AM

Could you imagine what it might be like if the money spent on the unsuccessful "War On Drugs" was spent on health care, treatment, and management of substance use?

Alcohol is the most frequently abused drug in North America and, aside from obesity and tobacco, contributes most to health care costs.

Prohibition didn't work decades ago.....it still isn't working...

The "war" mentality clearly is a failure.

Could you imagine the notion of "wellness' being a focus????

Ken Bondy - 11-28-2010 at 11:29 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by BooJumMan
Probably unrealistic, but you always wonder if there was no war on drugs. Would there then be no war in TJ?


I think the answer is a resounding "YES"

Woooosh - 11-28-2010 at 11:31 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by lencho
Quote:
Originally posted by Cypress
Legalize Pot! It's just plain stupid to keep funding the drug cartels. The law enforcement guys could go for the real criminals or go home.

Well of course, but I have a nagging suspicion it's not that simple... what's going to happen with all these trained criminals when their primary source of employment dries up? :?:

--Larry

there are always people and businesses to extort money from and kidnap for ransom... they'll get by.

DianaT - 11-28-2010 at 11:37 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by lencho
Quote:
Originally posted by Cypress
Legalize Pot! It's just plain stupid to keep funding the drug cartels. The law enforcement guys could go for the real criminals or go home.

Well of course, but I have a nagging suspicion it's not that simple... what's going to happen with all these trained criminals when their primary source of employment dries up? :?:

--Larry


Oh I suspect they would go into some other venture so we could create another expensive, unsuccessful "war". Or like some of the old crime gangs, they could spend their time managing their business created from the money laundering.

But this war is not working, and I doubt it ever will----I am on the let's legalize it all side. Lost a brother to drug and alcohol addiction and I am not sure if it was the "legal" drug or the "illegal" drug that caused his demise.

But I also agree with Tony---they really needed a decorator for that tunnel---:lol:

Ken Bondy - 11-28-2010 at 11:57 AM

Legalization is the only hope of ending this madness. Removing the illegal profit motive is the only thing that will work. Everything else has been proven not to work. The old argument that legalization will make drugs easier to get, and will result in more drug use, is grossly fallacious. Illegal drugs are easy to get. Anyone who wants them can get as much as he/she wants. That is not a function of legal/illegal. My son-in-law had no trouble getting as much illegal heroin as he wanted before he died of an overdose. Maybe if some of the illegal profits he paid to the cartels had gone to a recovery program he would still be alive.

DENNIS - 11-28-2010 at 12:10 PM

Legalization won't be a cure-all. I'll use "auto parts" as an example. They're legal, of course, but there's a thriving black market for them.
Drugs will be subject to effective marketing. Sell at a lower price than the legal source and business will boom.

.

[Edited on 11-28-2010 by DENNIS]

Ken Bondy - 11-28-2010 at 12:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Legalization won't be a cure-all. I'll use "auto parts" as an example. They're legal, of course, but there's a thriving black market for them.
Drugs will be subject to effective marketing. Sell at a lower price than the legal source and business will boom.

.

[Edited on 11-28-2010 by DENNIS]


Like everything else in life, DENNIS, you weigh the pluses and the minuses. Nothing is pure black, nothing pure white, only shades of gray. Legalization, while perhaps not perfect, is clearly the best option we have.

DianaT - 11-28-2010 at 12:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Ken Bondy
Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Legalization won't be a cure-all. I'll use "auto parts" as an example. They're legal, of course, but there's a thriving black market for them.
Drugs will be subject to effective marketing. Sell at a lower price than the legal source and business will boom.

.

[Edited on 11-28-2010 by DENNIS]


Like everything else in life, DENNIS, you weigh the pluses and the minuses. Nothing is pure black, nothing pure white, only shades of gray. Legalization, while perhaps not perfect, is clearly the best option we have.


Well said----and yes, there will probably still be a black market, just like there is for cigarettes and "legal" drugs, AKA prescription meds that come from both Canada and Mexico.

It takes out the BiG money. And it would save A LOT of money in California with a HUGE reduction in the prison population as so many of the crimes are all about drugs---selling of them or doing crimes to support the habits.

But, on the other side, there are way too many people in high places making way too much money on both sides of the border who do not want to stop the "war". It is very profitable to many.

mtgoat666 - 11-28-2010 at 12:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Legalization won't be a cure-all. I'll use "auto parts" as an example. They're legal, of course, but there's a thriving black market for them.
Drugs will be subject to effective marketing. Sell at a lower price than the legal source and business will boom.
[Edited on 11-28-2010 by DENNIS]


denny boy:
auto parts analogy? are there auto parts cartels? i think you are wrong. alcohol and nicotine are legal and don't have significant black markets. legal pot will eventually have legal trade in pot. i am sure that big tobacco or another sin merchant is salivating to get into legal pot sales.

Cypress - 11-28-2010 at 01:07 PM

It's just plain dumb to continue the current laws regarding pot. Who benefits from the illegalization of pot? The alcohol industry, the pharmaceutical industry, drug cartels and the law enforcement industry will be the biggest losers if pot is legalized. Big money is being spent on keeping a harmless drug illegal.

DENNIS - 11-28-2010 at 01:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by mtgoat666
denny boy:
auto parts analogy? are there auto parts cartels? i think you are wrong. alcohol and nicotine are legal and don't have significant black markets.


I don't know what you mean by "Significant" but I've seen San Diego police confiscate Duty Free cigarettes from a couple of homeless guys selling them on the streets to make a couple of bucks. All they had was a few cartons, but it turned into a Natzee cop issue.
Right, wrong or indifferent, it gave me a bad feeling to see this.

mtgoat666 - 11-28-2010 at 01:45 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Quote:
Originally posted by mtgoat666
denny boy:
auto parts analogy? are there auto parts cartels? i think you are wrong. alcohol and nicotine are legal and don't have significant black markets.


I don't know what you mean by "Significant" but I've seen San Diego police confiscate Duty Free cigarettes from a couple of homeless guys selling them on the streets to make a couple of bucks. All they had was a few cartons, but it turned into a Natzee cop issue.
Right, wrong or indifferent, it gave me a bad feeling to see this.


denny boy: sounds like you discovered a MASSIVE cartel right in my fair city! a cartel run by homeless! how carefully tey hide their money!

and one of the city of san diego top cops is a smoker, the worst type: i often see him driving my street. i have several times seen him litter by throwing his cig butts out his window while driving.

now i know where he buys his black market cigs. or does he just bust balls and take cigs from homeless?

DENNIS - 11-28-2010 at 01:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by mtgoat666
i often see him driving my street. i have several times seen him litter by throwing his cig butts out his window while driving.



NowNow, Goat....You shouldn't be divulging your stalking hobby on a public forum. It may be bad for your defense.

toneart - 11-28-2010 at 03:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Cypress
It's just plain dumb to continue the current laws regarding pot. Who benefits from the illegalization of pot? The alcohol industry, the pharmaceutical industry, drug cartels and the law enforcement industry will be the biggest losers if pot is legalized. Big money is being spent on keeping a harmless drug illegal.


Well, of course. What can you expect when the inmates are running the asylum for the dumb? :light::(

Where are the tax revolutionaries on this issue? On the wrong side of the issue, d'ya think? (sigh). Oh well, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels will straighten it out. :rolleyes::lol:

Big Is the Wrong Superlative

Bajahowodd - 11-28-2010 at 03:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Cypress
It's just plain dumb to continue the current laws regarding pot. Who benefits from the illegalization of pot? The alcohol industry, the pharmaceutical industry, drug cartels and the law enforcement industry will be the biggest losers if pot is legalized. Big money is being spent on keeping a harmless drug illegal.


How about obscenely immense amount of money. Just think how many people make their livelihood either directly or indirectly from this so-called war.

Not to mention the zealots. Did you see where Willie Nelson got busted the other day? His tour bus is driving along I-10 near Van Horn TX where there's been a Border Patrol checkpoint for years. The friggin' Border Patrol busted him. The checkpoint is not exactly near the border. Anyone but a blind man would recognize the bus. Anyone really think that Willie would be transporting illegals? It was like shooting fish in a barrel. But geez. The Border Patrol? When do they start doing door to door searches of our homes?

Cypress - 11-28-2010 at 03:29 PM

As if a real drug smuggler would go there! Those off border check points are an insult. The only thing they do is harass people.

Bajahowodd - 11-28-2010 at 03:35 PM

I absolutely agree. Reminds me that last month, we got checked on I-5 by San Onofre. I hadn't seen that checkpoint open in years. I thought they had basically closed it because of the massive traffic volume between San Diego and LA.

monoloco - 11-29-2010 at 07:23 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DianaT
Quote:
Originally posted by Ken Bondy
Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Legalization won't be a cure-all. I'll use "auto parts" as an example. They're legal, of course, but there's a thriving black market for them.
Drugs will be subject to effective marketing. Sell at a lower price than the legal source and business will boom.

.

[Edited on 11-28-2010 by DENNIS]


Like everything else in life, DENNIS, you weigh the pluses and the minuses. Nothing is pure black, nothing pure white, only shades of gray. Legalization, while perhaps not perfect, is clearly the best option we have.


Well said----and yes, there will probably still be a black market, just like there is for cigarettes and "legal" drugs, AKA prescription meds that come from both Canada and Mexico.

It takes out the BiG money. And it would save A LOT of money in California with a HUGE reduction in the prison population as so many of the crimes are all about drugs---selling of them or doing crimes to support the habits.

But, on the other side, there are way too many people in high places making way too much money on both sides of the border who do not want to stop the "war". It is very profitable to many.
The prison lobby is one of the main organizations pushing for stiffer drug laws.