From the On-Line presence of the LA Times:
A major drug tunnel has been discovered under the San Diego-Tijuana border, a roughly 1,800-foot passageway found in a warehouse in Otay Mesa where U.S. authorities seized more than 20 tons of marijuana, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.
In Mexico, army troops raided a warehouse in an industrial area that concealed the tunnel entrance and seized four more tons of dope.
The back-to-back raids occurred Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in a light industrial area with a long history of tunnel activity.
The passageway, equipped with lighting, ventilation and a rail system, is one of the few unearthed in recent years that appears to have been fully operational.
About 75 tunnels along the U.S-Mexico border have been unearthed in the last four years, most of them in various states of construction. The discovery comes two weeks after the Mexican military in Tijuana seized a record 134 tons of marijuana.
Snip
We have been over this bit of ground before gentle reader, but it bears repeating : the meme of "just build the dang fence" is not a serious policy proposal. It is nothing more than the thumb-sucking tantrum of a mental five year old. It is political primal scream therapy.
The fence out in Otay Mesa is one of the most well defended sections of our border with Mexico. it is actually three fences in succession. " Triple layer" is the term of the art. It is a huge, hulking, nasty metallic scar running across the land.
It does not end there. It is a massive deployment of government resources, both federal and local. It is Border Patrol, ICE, Customs, plus the National Guard. It is CHiP, San Diego Police, San Diego County Sheriffs, and even Fish and Game with an assist from Animal Control. And every one of these defenders of the border is armed to the teeth, even fish and game.
It is also a plethora of technology tossed at the situation. There are sensors and klieg lights, CCTC cameras, and angry flocks of ghetto birds (helicopters) buzzing about the skies. The breath and depth of the resources deployed at the Port of San Ysidro is mind boggling. And it is all to no avail.
Two very simple things defeat the best efforts of getting the border at San Diego under some semblance of control : the bad guys and the landscape itself. The bad guys have the will and the dexterity to find novel solutions to the circumvent the presence of the fence. Dig they must for fun and profit.
In this effort they are aided by the literal facts on the ground. San Diego is a vast jumble of rugged Mesas covered in a rash of urban and suburban sprawl. it is an absolute nightmare for anyone trying to impose their will on the landscape. On both sides of Otay Mesa it is a nondescript collection of gullies, canyons, chaparral, housing developments, light-industrial zones, junk yards and the other flotsam of the post modern world. You could flood the area with the entire U.S. and Mexican Army and still not gain any kind of foot-hold. The very landscape in the area will defeat you. There will alway be one more gulch, one more house, one more Maquiladora, one more storage facility, one more back road that is going to bite you in the tenders.
But this will not matter to the idiot elites that occupy the Beltway. Evil men and woman will continue to exploit the fear of the brown invasion to gain ascendancy. Millions, perhaps billions of dollars will be poured down the rat hole that is the fence.
Next time some TEA party true believer or Minute Man faithful starts spouting off about building the fence, tell them about the little slice of heaven that is Otay Mesa. Talk to them about how even the very best part of our fence is barely a speed bump to the bad guys. They won't listen, but at least someone will be injecting a little truth into the conversation.
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