Drug Smugglers Burrow Under Border

Arizona town stands over network of tunnels to Mexico
By Emily Rauhala,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 3, 2010 7:30 AM CDT
Drug Smugglers Burrow Under Border
A tunnel discovered by Mexican officials in Tijuana, Mexico.   (AP Photo/Drug Enforcement Administration)

Drug smugglers have found a new way to sneak their merchandise across the US-Mexico border: Under it. The heart of the burrowing business are the Nogales—two towns bearing the same name on either side of the border, notes the New York Times. There, in an old network of drainage pipes, people haul bales of pot and other contraband. “They crawl on their bellies,” says one Border Patrol agent. “They’re like a snake.”

Officials have found 51 tunnels in the past four years, some cramped and dark while others have phone lines and air conditioning. A former Nogales official jokes that the tunnels are so prevalent that his entire town may someday collapse into a sinkhole, the Times notes. Click here for more on Mexico's drug wars.

(More Mexico drug war stories.)

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