Pubdate: Wed, 15 Jan 2014
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2014 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Authors: Brian Skoloff and Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press

DRUG CARTELS TURN TO SOPHISTICATED TUNNELS ALONG MEXICAN BORDER

NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) - As border security has tightened, drug cartels
have turned to tunneling beneath the ground to avoid detection.

Nearly 170 tunnels have been found nationwide since 1990, most along
the Arizona and California border with Mexico. The job of searching
these networks can be dangerous, so the U.S. Border Patrol is
unveiling its latest technology in the underground war - a wireless,
camera-equipped robot that can do the job in a fraction of the time.

How are they built?

Miners and other laborers hired by the cartels use hoes, jackhammers,
shovels and picks to gouge out soil and load the dirt into buckets
that are brought back out of the tunnel's starting point in Mexico.
The tools that miners use are old-fashioned and can be bought at home
improvement stores.

Smugglers have dug dozens of crude tunnels in Nogales, Ariz., that
begin in Mexico and tie into the Arizona city's storm drainage system.

To build sophisticated tunnels - such as those found near San Diego -
that have ventilation and lighting systems and stretch the length of
several football fields, cartels will hire engineers and miners. A
cartel will have a financier or a cell that reports to the cartel
bosses and runs the construction.

U.S. border officials estimate that the more sophisticated tunnels
probably cost $2 million to $3 million.

How are tunnels used?

Experts say the sophisticated tunnels are used for only drug
smuggling, because the people who built them earn big dollars from
moving drugs underground and don't want immigrants who are getting
smuggled into the United States to spread the word about their investment.

A mixture of drugs are brought in through the tunnels, but marijuana -
which is bulky and therefore difficult to move - is the most prevalent
drug transported through the tunnels.

Immigrant smugglers use "gopher hole" tunnels made of huge PVC pipes
that are buried underground and span the border, providing enough
space to where a person can barely squeeze through.

The storm-drain tunnels in places like Nogales are used for smuggling
immigrants as well as drugs.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D