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 News from Around the Americas | June 2007 
US Uncovers Crossborder Drug Tunnel in Arizona
 Reuters
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| | An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in an undated photo. Across the country, raids on workplaces and homes of suspected illegal immigrants have increased. ICE spokesman Greg Palmore said some 20,000 people have been arrested since October 2006. (Reuters/ICE) |
Nogales, Arizona - U.S. authorities have discovered a cramped but sophisticated drug smuggling tunnel linking Nogales, Arizona, with its Mexican sister city, Nogales, Sonora, officials said on Friday.
In coordinated raids on Thursday, U.S. drug and customs agents moved in on an Arizona home at one end of the tunnel while Sonora state police arrested five people at an apartment on the other side, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in a statement.
Agents discovered the tunnel's entrance in the house's utility room hidden beneath sheets of plywood and weighed down with dirt filled bags. The tunnel had been recently constructed and looked like it had not yet been used, said the ICE statement.
The shaft of the tunnel was reinforced with wood supports and sand bags. It had lighting but no ventilation system.
"Because of the (small) size of the passageway, it wouldn't have been very practical to smuggle people. We think they intended to use it to smuggle narcotics," said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice.
The tunnel snakes around for some 200 yards, but the distance between the homes was just 100 yards.
The drug smugglers who built the tunnel are believed to be connected to kingpin Mexican trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, said Nogales ICE official Terry Kirkpatrick.
Police have discovered more than 40 tunnels connecting towns in Mexico and the United States since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
U.S. Border Cops Seize Parrots Hidden in Duffel Bag
Reuters
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Phoenix - U.S. Border police found ten Amazon parrots stuffed in the duffel bag of a man crossing from Mexico, authorities said on Thursday.
Customs and Border Protection officers at the San Ysidro port of entry, south of San Diego, Calif., found the small, green birds hidden in a bag in a pickup truck on Tuesday, and arrested the driver, a U.S. citizen.
CBP spokesman Vince Bond said the birds were placed in agricultural quarantine and transferred to the Department of Agriculture's veterinary services.
He said officers at two ports of entry south of San Diego had seized 152 wild birds since October 1 last year.
"This is an enforcement issue we take very seriously. We are doing our utmost to keep dangerous viruses and diseases from entering the United States," Bond said.
San Ysidro is the busiest border crossing in the world. Inspectors more frequently discover drugs and undocumented migrants smuggled from the sprawling industrial city of Tijuana, in Mexico. |
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