If there was any doubt that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the United States has their work cut out for them, there isn't any longer. A series of sophisticated, underground passageways between the US and Mexico has been discovered in recent days and they make previous smuggling efforts look like child's play.
The three drug smuggling tunnels have been equipped with lighting and ventilation. One even included a rail car system for smuggling the drugs. The biggest one was 755 feet long and linked a warehouse in southwestern Arizona with an ice-making plant behind a strip club in Mexico.
Photos show that the tunnel could be accessed beneath a sink in the US and apparently had 57-foot deep shafts on either side. Authorities believe the Sinaloa cartel likely employed professional engineers to build this passageway into San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico.
I am no fan of drug smugglers, obviously, but this is seriously bad ass. I don't care how much you hate the drug trade, credit where credit is due man.
This is not the first tunnel ever found. All told, more than 150 tunnels have been found in the war on drugs. But this is one of the most sophisticated ones and authorities are estimating it cost the cartel close to $1 million to build. Somehow I am betting the dude who was caught with 39 pounds of meth and more or less ratted them out is going to go down for this.
Drug smuggling is a dangerous, dangerous business and it seems those involved are getting smarter and more dangerous with every passing day.
With all the money spent on these efforts, wouldn't it be easier just to "legalize it" as they say? Couldn't we save a lot of money and a lot of pain and headaches (and danger to the lives of DEA agents) if we just regulated the drug trade, legalized it, and taxed it to death?
I am no economist, but I would support this. Maybe as the drug smugglers become more and more sophisticated, we ought to do the same. They stay one step ahead of us because we never change our game. They build it, we find it, we arrest them, and we send out a press release. Here's an idea: maybe change things up. Try a new game.
Clearly the smugglers are winning the war even if they did lose this battle.
What do you make of these tunnels?
Image via RaeAllen/Flickr
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
KStew Refuses to Shower
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Comments 18
HAHA!!!! ^^^^^^^^ But no seriously, Smugglers and what not are getting smart as hell, and honestly a ventilated tunnel with lighting, and probably coffee shops and air conditioning is bad ass!!!!! you could set up coffee shops and rooms to stay in over night! I should have never read this article... Not that it was bad but this is just somethings I should not think about at work. lol
Woah. It's like the wardrobe door to Narnia. . . . except with meth and potential human trafficking.
I agree, kind of. Someone can stomp their shoe at a cockroach, but it's only going to make the other cockroaches spread and colonize elsewhere, making them stronger and harder to exterminate each time.
Narnia? Haha, no. It's the Chamber of Secrets!! It's accessible from a SINK!!! ...but I digress...
This is phenomenally pathetic. HOW could this have happened with nobody noticing? Construction is noisy! <shaking my head> Unbelievable. There had to be people paid off, turning their heads, etc.
I don't know the answer. I think part of the answer would be to legalize/regulate marijuana (I'm not ready to legalize meth, crack, etc), and honestly declare WAR on the rest of it. Right now, we slap people on the wrist. We take their toys, put them in jail for a week, and let them go. They just go back and do the same thing again. We've got cops out on the front lines working their butts off, and the courts stab them in the back. It's time to put some teeth in drug enforcement. Make it seriously NOT worth their while to be a smuggler. It'd be expensive, but it'd be worth it to shut down the border for a while and really bring the hammer down.
Drugs are illegal because of the danger they pose to society in general. It's not just the danger that's imposed on on the individual. What the government is trying to do here is to do a bit of prevention, and it makes sense. Look at all of the societal ills that come with the use of tobacco, alcohol abuse, and prescription medicine abuse. It's costly on a whole number of levels including healthcare (because cancer treatment and stomach pumping is expensive, but since the cause of it is the excessive consumption of those drugs, the illness is largely self-induced), physical property (drugs alter people's minds), and the very much less tangible damage to the moral fabric of society. And those are just from the drugs that are already legal (not that there was much choice with them having been a part of society since time immemorial).
So what happens then, if harder drugs such as meth, crack, lsd, heroin, etc. are legalized? What are the financial and social costs to a society? And where do you draw the line? What makes marijuana so different from opium and other narcotics? Who makes that decision?
PonyChaser is right--slapping people on the wrists don't do anything to solve the problem. Real discipline is needed.
I don't think she meant meth.. the guy that got caught was smuggling meth who turned them in. He was just a low man on the totem pole idiot who knew some info -- not the cartel themselves. Marijuana is the number one import, not the most profitable... but I'd say the most in demand.. not that I'm an expert.. just seems that way. Legalize marijuana and tax the crap out of it. Like she said, the DEA might be winning small battles - but the cartels are definitely winning the WAR.
I understand legalization and regulations. People are going to do drugs, ANY DRUGS. Now if they legalize, tax, and regulate them, there will be a lot less trouble. If you treat drugs the same way you treat alcohol fewer people would be getting in trouble for it. Yes I know drugs are not great, in fact I personally know how drugs can destroy lives, however, I am still for legalization. I understand why they won't (jobs), cops need to be busy and if we made things legal there would be less for them to do, but there would also be less people in jail for ridiculous reasons. I'm sorry but a drug dealer doing 5 to 10 is stupid compared to all the sick child molesters and murders that should be in jail.
When i was a kid and watched James Bond films I always wondered " who bulids those evil lairs doesnt anyone notice?" I mean you just cant hire a regular contracter and say "ssshhhh"