This has scary implications:
Federal agents have shut down an elaborate, 360-foot tunnel used to smuggle drugs from Canada into the United States, the first such passageway discovered on the nation’s northern border, officials said Thursday.
Five people linked to the tunnel were arrested on marijuana trafficking charges, John McKay, a United States attorney, said in this border town about 90 miles north of Seattle.
“They were smart enough to build a sophisticated tunnel,” Mr. McKay said. “They weren’t smart enough to not get caught.”
The tunnel begins under a Quonset hut on the Canadian side and ends under the living room of a home on the United States side, 300 feet from the border. Built with lumber, concrete and metal reinforcing bars, the passageway was equipped with lights and ventilation and ran underneath a highway. It was 3½ to 4 feet high and wide, and ran from 3 to 10 feet below ground, the authorities said.
While I hate our ridiculous and unwinnable ‘War on Drugs’ (the ‘War on your Neighbor’ as I like to call it), what scares me is that if this can be used to smuggle drugs, it can be used to smuggle all sorts of terrorism related personnel and materials.
Jeff
I wonder if that’s the tunnel Bob Probert used to go between Canada and the US back when he played for the Red Wings.
SayUncle
That’s a common practice from Mexico too. A lot of the mexican guys who do odd jobs at construction sites in my area have told a contractor friend that they crossed the border by entering a house in Mexico, follow a tunnel, and come out in the US.
David
what scares me is that if this can be used to smuggle drugs, it can be used to smuggle all sorts of terrorism related personnel and materials.
Truth is, terrorists don’t need tunnels to get personnel or material into the US.
All you need is a car- there’s a good dozen or so spots along the US / Canadian border that are unsecured which one can simply drive across, (or walk) without a passport. Not to mention the US / Mexico border. And, the places one can simply circumvent all offical border security and such are too numberous to count.
As far as materials- rent a shipping container in Hong Kong or Malaysia. It’s really that simple.
David
In the past, tunnels have been thought of as a loop hole to violating international law by crossing a border. The idea being that the person never actually crosses the border, only the material crosses the border.
Circumvention of the Mann Act is a prime example. The act established that it was illegal to transport women across borders with the intention of illicit action, IE, slavery, prostititon, etc.
So, what was the loop hole? Drive the women to the edge of the border, let them out of the car, the women walked across the border, and the men picked them up on the other side.
Of course, this “loop hole” never held up in court, but it doesn’t stop people from trying, even today.
Bruce
We can’t stop people making tunnels, and I’m not sure we should try. Far better to address the circumstances that cause people to build such tunnels in the first place.