No wall too high: Authorities seize drug catapult along US-Mexico border
US Border Patrol agents have confiscated a catapult system believed to have been used to launch drugs into the United States, underscoring concerns that President Trump's plan to erect a wall along the border may not be effective at thwarting marijuana smugglers.
The two agents were patrolling a stretch of border fence near Douglas, Ariz.,聽on Friday, when they noticed several people running away. They found two bundles of marijuana, weighing a total of 47 pounds, on the US side, and a catapult system attached to the southern side of the fence. The Associated Press reported that the catapult was seized by Mexican authorities.
This isn鈥檛 the first time聽drug cartels have used these age-old machines. In 2011, US National Guard troops spotted a 9-foot-tall catapult being used to launch pot into Arizona. The Mexican army destroyed the device, but the smugglers got away.
Mr. Trump's Jan. 25 order 聽the secretary of Homeland Security聽鈥渢o immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border,鈥� as a means to prevent the entry of 鈥渦nlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband.鈥�
But security experts have long warned that, even if Mr. Trump fulfills his signature campaign pledge, a border wall would do little to stop Mexican drug cartels from bringing their product into the United States. 聽
"The Mexican drug traffickers would punch a hole through it, fly over it," Mike Vigil, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent, said of the wall last March,聽. "They would be able to circumvent that with medieval technology, catapults, shooting stuff across the wall."
have ranged between 30 and 55 feet, which may prove more of a challenge for catapults, like the one confiscated on Friday. But even if drug smugglers have to abandon these venerable machines, they鈥檒l have no shortage of other methods for delivering their product.
鈥�More than 200 smuggling tunnels鈥� 鈥� some of which feature lighting, rails, and other advanced features 鈥� 鈥渉ave been discovered along the border in various stages of construction, according to the Border Patrol,鈥澛牶＝谴笊疋�檚 Warren Richey聽reported.
One assumes that it would include an underground component to deter tunneling. But cartels have also taken to the air with drones and ultralight aircraft, gone beneath the waves in submarines, and hidden their drugs in , ranging from donuts to frozen sharks.
As entertaining as some of these exploits seem, drug violence is a painful reality for many Mexicans. Last month, there were 116 homicides in the Mexican state of Sinaloa alone 鈥� a 50 percent increase over January 2016, according to Reuters.
Some experts attribute the increase to power struggles within the Sinaloa cartel after its leader, Joaquin 鈥淓l Chapo鈥� Guzman, was extradited to the United States to stand trial.
President Trump has described these cartels as 鈥溾�� to the US, and recently signed another aimed at combatting them.
Ironically, building a wall could increase demand for outside-the-box smuggling strategies 鈥� and give a boost to the cartels that have spent years honing them.
In September, Tom Wainwright, author of the 2016 book 鈥淣arconomics:聽How to Run a Drug Cartel,鈥� that Trump 鈥渢alks a crackdown at the border, but crossing the border is what they do best. It's where their advantage lies 鈥� that's where they make their money.鈥�
"I think if the cartels could vote,鈥� he continued, 鈥渢hey would vote for Donald Trump.鈥�
