Drug Smugglers From Mexico Use Border Crossings in ... - NBC News
Checkpoints along the U.S.-Mexico border are an increasingly popular entrance for drug smugglers. That could undermine Trump's argument for a wall. ... 48 PM GMT / Updated ... NBC News/Phil ...
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/drug-smugglers-mexico-use-border-crossings-spite-walls-n724341
eb. 22, 2017, 6:48 PM EST / Updated Feb. 22, 2017, 6:56 PM EST
By Phil McCausland, Jacob Soboroff and Aarne Heikkila
Secure checkpoints along the American-Mexican border have become an increasingly popular entrance for drug smugglers entering the United States, a fact that could undermine President Donald Trump's argument for a border wall.
Customs agents at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the busiest land border crossing in the world, check 50,000 vehicles and 20,000 pedestrians on an average day — and they do it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Located just south of San Diego and a few miles north of Tijuana, there are countless attempts to bring drugs across the border: some successful, some not.
“We’re looking at everyone. We’re looking at illegal narcotics, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl, all entering the borders,” said Sidney Aki, Customs and Border Protection Director of the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
NBC News/Phil McCausland / Drug Enforcement Administration
Border agents have seen drug seizures swell, and heroin and methamphetamine have become increasingly commonplace. The amount of heroin nabbed by agents has quadrupled since 2010 and meth seizures have tripled.
Smugglers hide the drugs wherever they can: often tucked deep inside the cars they’re driving across the border.
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“For us hard narcotics are trending, particular heroin and methamphetamine — the packages are getting a little bit smaller for us,” said Pete Flores, CBP Director of Field Operations, San Diego Sector. “The number of them have increased obviously because the packaging is smaller and in order to put them in deeper concealment in the vehicles.”
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