Highlights:
-US Border Patrol Agents have discovered 13 smuggling tunnels so far this year near Nogales, Arizona; with a total of 75 tunnels found along Southwest border since the late 1990s
-Smuggling tunnels remain vulnerability for law enforcement targeting of illegal weapons, drugs and immigration
-Increased number of new tunnels indicates tunneling trend will be long-term threat
On September 2, 2008 police officials investigating suspicious activity at a home near Mexicali south of the US – Mexican border found eight men digging a tunnel to the US. The tunnel, which included lights, an elevator, ventilation, an electric rail for container transport and air-conditioning, was only about three feet wide and three feet high, but stretched approximately 100 yards at nearly 20 feet underground. The tunnel’s destination was Calexico, California, and was approximately 100 yards short of the US border when found.
In a separate early September 2008 incident, US Border Patrol agents also discovered a tunnel near the Nogales, Arizona border—one of 13 tunnels found this year in the area—that emptied in a parking lot next to the international boundary fence at the Deconcini Port of Entry.
The recent tunnel findings are two of approximately 75 tunnels that have been detected since the late 1990’s, most of which have been located in border areas connecting Mexico to Arizona and California. These latest incidents indicate the smuggling tunnel trend continues at an escalating pace and will likely be a long-term threat to US border security efforts.
Criminal Intent
The utilization of below surface border smuggling tunnels has likely increased as a result of enhanced law enforcement targeting of border crimes at above ground manned border crossings. Customs Border Patrol (CBP) has increased the number of trained agents to 15,000 agents in 2007 and has plans to increase the number to 18,300 agents by the end of 2008. Additionally, over 300 miles of fencing along the Mexican border has been built, with more expected in the mid-term (Previous Report). Cooperation between Mexican and US authorities, while still lacking in many jurisdictions, has improved overall in the past few years as well.
The tunnels, which vary in size, sophistication and length, continue to be an important tool for smuggling groups because their use provides the ability to overcome additional measures law enforcement officials have enacted above ground, including increased checkpoints, fencing, surveillance and manpower. However, the driving reason for using tunnels is the profit margins made from the movement of illegal contraband—people, weapons and drugs.
Difficulty in Detection
Efforts to detect tunnels have also proved to be a difficult process, and have contributed to the increasing use of tunnels. According to the US Border Patrol, border tunnels are constructed “because it is often far more efficient to spend weeks or months building a tunnel to transport some amount of contraband than to risk sending that same amount of contraband on the surface where it might easily be detected.” Because of the large profit margins involved in smuggling operations, the time and costs associated with building tunnels is worth the effort for smugglers to enable a transportation route, even if for only a short period of time. As such, smugglers would much rather have a secure below ground route for a short period of time than to chance above ground detection and possible seizure of their contraband.
US Border Patrol indicates there are four main detection methods in proactively finding tunnels, including observing and monitoring,
•seismic activity – low frequency digging noises and tunnel transit noises
•magnetic anomalies – electrical power lines in the tunnel, metal digging tools or metal shoring
•acoustic activity – higher frequency noise related to earthen removal
•density anomalies – changes to the surface result from tunnels being built
Because of the dense population of buildings and housing on both sides of border towns such as Nogales, which straddles the border on both sides, tunnels can be easily constructed with hidden exit points in residential communities, and detection monitoring methods are often less likely to work.
Outlook
The use of smuggling tunnels will continue to be a concern for US border security as the ease of use, difficulty in detection and high-profit margins of smuggled contraband make tunnel construction worth the time and effort for smuggling organizations. As such, the use of tunnels by criminal groups will continue at an escalating pace in the mid to long-term as the border region remains difficult to monitor on both sides, despite the strides made by law enforcement in surveillance and detection methods.
