Saturday, October 23,1999
Drug tunnels are problem for traffickers, law alike
By Ignacio Ibarra
The Arizona Daily Star
Although a cross-border tunnel can allow tons of drugs into the United States, it's nothing more than a giant, immovable, expensive piece of evidence once word leaks out.
That's why investigators say aboveground methods of drug trafficking are far more prevalent.
Even so, "If we were to say there are no more tunnels out there we'd have our heads in the sand," said Special Agent Jim Molesa, spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
"We have some information that there's another one out there, maybe more than one," said Ruben Saavedra, commander of the multi-agency Border Alliance Group drug task force and a lieutenant with the Cochise County Sheriff's Department.
"When you hear someone constructed a tunnel, that takes money, that means planning, that means someone organized."
Molesa said tunnels are "a very difficult investigation to make, because even with investigative equipment to locate subterranean tunnels ... it takes. a lot of good footwork where investigators actually are out on the street, talking to people, substantiating leads."
Although drug tunnels aren't the method of choice for most drug smugglers; they remain a significant threat because they can potentially be used to move "hundreds of thousands of pounds of drugs virtually undetected," Molesa said.
The border is the reason the tunnels exist, and the ability to operate with virtual impunity on the Mexican side makes it feasible to build and use tunnels to move drug shipments, Molesa said.
The tunnel found Thursday connecting a Nogales, Ariz., home to the Nogales Wash is a couple of blocks north of another Nogales residence where two similar tunnels were found.
One led to the wash, and another to the crawl space beneath a local church.
All three tunnels were unlined and appeared to have been dug using hand tools.
Law-enforcement officials know that Nogales Wash, which is covered its first few blocks north of the U.S.-Mexican border, is a popular way to sneak across.
Rob Daniels, U.S. Border Patrol spokesman, said the Nogales station _always has an agent working where the wash opens up. Health concerns mean agents do not usually enter the covered wash itself - and when they do, they're in hazardousmaterial suits.
A cross-border drug tunnel discovered in Douglas in 1990 remains the most sophisticated found to date.
The cement-lined tunnel 30 feet below the surface linked an Agua Prieta, Sonora, townhouse with a Douglas warehouse nearly 300 feet to the northeast.
The shaft leading down to tunnel on the Mexican side was concealed by a pool table mounted on a hydraulic lift.
Still another drug tunnel was discovered in Naco this May.
Molesa said the wood than lined the sides of the tunnel was so old that investigators suspect it may have been in use for "20 or 30 years and probably used to,-, move a lot of things," including; alcohol, illegal entrants and drugs
"They go from the sophisticated to the bare essentials, but regardless of the level of experrise, they're motivated obviously, by the profits that can be made,", said Molesa
In the cases seen so far, the tunnel operators appear to be, independent contractors who perform a service for a fee, he said.
Those fees are generally high, which makes tunnels most feasible for traffickers in high-dollar products like cocaine and heroin or drug money headed south.
The builders are able to hire workers to excavate the tunnels and conceal the operation inside buildings or behind high-walled yards.
They dispose of the dirt that comes out of the tunnel by remov- ing it and dispersing it around town in small amounts.
Saavedra said tunnel construction along the Arizona-Mexico border may even be aided by the availability of people with exper- rise in mining - something that would certainly have been necesasary in the construction of the' Douglas drug tunnel.
Although tunnels are an effective means of smuggling drugs both Saavedra and Molesa believe it is much easier and cheaper for smugglers to pay someone to drive or carry a load into the United States.
There's one other handicap Molesa said: Word of a tunnel inevitably leaks out. And when it does, a tunnel operation can be hard to move or even conceal. "It's like that song Smuggler's Blues.' 'Somebody squeals,' you never know how you're going to get turned in. It could be a rumor that a driver heard; that's how investigations begin," he said.
CROSS-BORDER TUNNEL DISCOVERIES
May 25, 1999: A cross-border tunnel in Naco is discovered. It: links a trailer on the U.S. side to homes in Naco, Sonora.
Jan. 19, 1999: Two tunnels are found in Nogales, Ariz. One connects a house to Nogales Wash, allowing drug traffickers to cross the border undetected. Another, longer tunnel connects an apartment next to the house to a crawl space beneath Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Its purpose remains unclear.
1995: A 200-yard tunnel runs from a Nogales, Ariz., Methodist: church into Mexico. It had been shut down before it was discovered.
1990: Probably the most famous tunnel is discovered running from a luxury home in Aqua Prieta, Sonora, to a storeroom under a: Douglas cement warehouse. It's 200 feet long, 30 feet wide and concrete-lined.