Mexican drug cartels have equipped dozens of tunnels with railroads and cart systems to foam drugs under the US border, a major challenge for the Trump administration working to curb the country's illegal drug flow is raising the following.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reports that most illegal drugs in the US are smuggled through vehicles at the entrance to the southern border, but some pass through tunnels and underground passages across the border. Masu.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to stop the flow of illegal drugs in the United States, and has introduced a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico. According to An estimated 107,941 drug abuse labs in the United States died in 2022 from drug-involved overdose.
Michael Brown, a former DEA senior special agent who is global director of anti-drug technology at Rigaku Analytical Devices, told Fox News Digital that the agency had blown up a drug trafficking tunnel to make it passable.
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Ice said one covered tunnel extends from a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico, to a warehouse in San Diego's Otaymesa area. The tunnel averages 31 feet deep and is 3 feet wide along most of the aisle. (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency)
Brown said DEA and Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) officials must step up investigations into underground tunnels to discover “concealment” at the tunnel's US exit.
“Cover-up” is a regular storefront or warehouse used to hide the entrance and exit of a tunnel.
“They (cartels) travel hundreds of kilometres, build warehouses above the tunnels, calling them Joe's pizza shop and Jose's mechanics,” Brown said. “It's difficult to pinpoint it on Eagle Pass or Brownsville [in Texas]. ”
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The former DEA agent said if properly managed, federal authorities could identify sources and clarify possible connections between the tunnel location and the US.
“Instead of trying to recruit individuals, I said, 'I'll pay a certain amount of money for the information,'” Brown said.
Law enforcement officials are to open a cross-border tunnel to the Tijuana and San Diego regions of Mexico on May 16, 2022. (AP photo/Eliot Spagut)
Ice said one tunnel would extend the length of about eight soccer fields, from Tijuana warehouses to the Otaymesa Industrial Park building in San Diego. (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency)
The border crossings have plummeted since Trump returned to the White House. There were 7,287 immigrants meetings at the southern border in the first seven days (January 20-26) after Trump took office by both border patrols at the port of entry and port of entry. You will encounter it on a day.
This rivals 20,086 encounters in the last seven days of the Biden administration before Trump's inauguration (January 13-19), with an average of 2,869 encounters per day.
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“It's amazing,” Brown said of the drop in a border encounter. “But the tunnel represents a serious problem.”
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Underground passages are not a new phenomenon. Brown pointed out the use of tunnels during the Vietnam War and, more recently, the labyrinth of the tunnels in Hamas, Gaza.
“The cartels have more money than Hamas. When you think about it, and as you know, it took hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to build those tunnels.” he said. “Well, there are billions of dollars in the cartel.”
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He pointed out that tunnels are not simple underground holes, but rather complex “underground cities” with air ducts, office space, weapons stashes and railroad tracks.
Federal agents seized £4,400 of illegal drugs from the exit of one U.S. tunnel, Ice said. (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency)
Brown said he doesn't think it will be as long as the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) did when destroying the tunnel.
On October 7, 2023, after Hamas attacked Israel, the IDF turned to dismantling the nets of the terrorist group's tunnels. In one example, the IDF said it pumped water into the tunnel and flooded it.
“The United States will not blow up schools under any circumstances,” he said. “But I think if there's 9/11 every day like Israel, then America's attitude will change.”
On January 10th, 2025, we will dismantle the human trafficking tunnel in Chiudad Juarez, Mexico. (Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the DEA, immigration and customs enforcement, and the HSI for comment.
Adam Shaw of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
