Creative smugglers get drugs into U.S.

[kiwi_farmer]

BY JACQUES BILLEAUD - The Associated Press

Published Thu, Oct 29, 2009 02:00 AM

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/163197.html

© Copyright 2009, The News & Observer Publishing Company

 

A custom-built truck ramp like this one can get drugs across 5-foot-high vehicle barriers

 

 

SAN MIGUEL, Ariz. -- A pickup truck in Mexico pulls up to the 5-foot barriers that make up part of the multibillion-dollar border fence. A retractable ramp is extended from the truck, bridging the barriers.

 

Then, a second pickup -- this one loaded with a ton of marijuana -- rolls over the bridge and into the U.S.

 

With custom-built ramps, ultralight planes, false doors and good old-fashioned duct tape, smugglers have demonstrated unbounded creativity in sneaking drugs across the Mexican border. And the U.S. government acknowledges there is only so much it can do to stop the flow.

 

 

"We have to keep it at a manageable level so society can continue to operate," said Elizabeth Kempshall, agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's office in Arizona. "Are we going to get rid of 100 percent of all drug trafficking? Probably not. But I can make it as difficult and as costly as possible for these drug traffickers."

 

The government has spent $2.4 billion to build more than 600 miles of border fences since fiscal 2005, increased the ranks of the Border Patrol from 12,000 agents in 2006 to 20,000, and funded U.S. Customs and Border Protection with $8.1 billion in 2008.

 

Over the past year, seizures of marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine rose sharply, while the amount of intercepted cocaine increased modestly. By far, the biggest seizures were of marijuana. A record 2.4 million pounds of pot was confiscated, 50 percent higher than last year.

 

Yet enough drugs make it into this country to supply 20 million users, according to government estimates.

 

"When you finally catch on to something, you think, 'Wow, how many times did they get away with that one?'" said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing 17,000 agents.

 

"This is a war of technology, and I believe that the only way we are going to win it is if our technology is better than theirs," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.

[Crunchy]

its always a war when it comes to the US, war on drugs, war of technology, pfft, when will they smarten up...

[Fibrofeend]

2.4 million pounds confiscated! you cant tell me that some of that doesn't get back into circulation

[bufo marinus]

There are so many reasons people love to hate America, more correctly, the American government and all it encompasses, for all the misery it has caused the world over the decades.

It makes me want to barrack for the Mexican peasant criminal murderers eagerly ripping as much money as they can from the bleeding US, it is well an international disgrace so many people have lost their lives because of the arrogance of that same government.

I hope they start mounting twin bazookas to the front of the 4x4's and blow the US narc cunts to hell where they belong with the rest of those Bible thumping assholes just a pity Washington wasn't closer to the border to enjoy the carnage and give the rest of the free world something to smile about

[Reverend]

Duct Tape to the rescue yet again.