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Mexican drug cartels have outfitted dozens of tunnels with rail and cart methods to whisk medication beneath the U.S. border, posing a serious problem for the Trump administration as it really works to curb the move of unlawful narcotics into the nation.
The U.S. Drug and Enforcement Company (DEA) stories that the majority illicit medication within the U.S. are smuggled through automobiles at southern border entry factors, however some enter by cross-border tunnels and subterranean passageways.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to cease the move of unlawful medication within the U.S., introducing a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico. In response to the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse, an estimated 107,941 individuals within the U.S. died from a drug-involved overdose in 2022.
Former DEA Senior Particular Agent Michael Brown, who’s the worldwide director of counter-narcotics know-how at Rigaku Analytical Units, instructed Fox Information Digital that the company blows up the drug trafficking tunnels to make them impassable.
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ICE stated one uncovered tunnel extends for greater than 2,000 toes from a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico, to a warehouse within the Otay Mesa space of San Diego. The tunnel has a median depth of 31 toes and is 3-feet large alongside many of the passageway. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
Brown stated DEA and Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) personnel should intensify their investigations into underground tunnels to find “cover-ups” of the tunnels’ U.S. exits.
“Cowl-ups” are seemingly regular storefronts or warehouses used to cover tunnel entrances and exits.
“They (the cartels) transfer lots of of kilos out and construct a warehouse over the tunnel and name it Joe’s Pizza store or Jose’s mechanic store,” Brown stated. “It is laborious to determine that in Eagle Move or Brownsville [in Texas].”
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The previous DEA agent stated that if correctly managed, federal authorities can determine sources to disclose the tunnels’ areas and doable U.S. connections.
“As a substitute of attempting to recruit a person, say, ‘We’ll pay you a sure amount of cash for info,'” Brown stated.
Legislation enforcement officers stand by the opening of a cross-border tunnel between Mexico’s Tijuana into the San Diego space on Could 16, 2022. (AP Photograph/Elliot Spagat)
ICE stated one tunnel extends the size of roughly eight soccer fields, from a warehouse in Tijuana to a constructing in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial park. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
Since Trump’s return to the White Home, border crossings have plummeted. There have been 7,287 migrant encounters on the southern border within the first seven days (Jan. 20-26) after Trump’s inauguration by each Border Patrol between ports of entry and by the Workplace of Discipline Operations at ports of entry, with a each day common of 1,041 encounters a day.
That compares to twenty,086 encounters within the last seven days of the Biden administration (Jan. 13-19) previous to Trump’s inauguration, averaging 2,869 encounters a day.
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“It is superb,” Brown stated, talking of the drop of border encounters. “The tunnels, although, symbolize a big downside.”
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Subterranean passageways aren’t a brand new phenomenon. Brown pointed to the usage of tunnels throughout the Vietnam Warfare and, extra lately, Hamas’ labyrinth of tunnels in Gaza.
“Cartels have extra money than Hamas, when you consider it. And, you realize, it took lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in assist cash to construct these tunnels,” he stated. “Effectively, the cartels have billions of {dollars}.”
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He famous that tunnels aren’t easy underground holes however quite sophisticated “underground cities” full with air ducts, workplace area, weapon stashes and railway tracks.
Federal brokers seized 4,400 kilos of illicit medication from one tunnel’s exit within the U.S., ICE stated. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
Brown stated he does not consider the U.S. would go to the identical size because the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) did when destroying the tunnels.
Following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel, the IDF set its sights on dismantling the terrorist group’s net of tunnels. In a single occasion, the IDF stated they pumped water into the tunnels and flooded them.
“The U.S. would by no means blow up a college beneath any circumstances,” he stated. “But when we had a 9/11 daily like Israel, I feel American attitudes would change.”
A binational operation dismantles a human trafficking tunnel in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on Jan. 10, 2025. (Christian Torres/Anadolu through Getty Photographs)
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Fox Information Digital has reached out to the DEA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and HSI for remark.
Fox Information Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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