Arizona's Southwest Border Illegal Drug Tunnels

Abstract

In this research we try to discover the insight of “Drug Tunnels” in a holistic perspective. The key heart of the study is on “Drug Tunnels” and its relation with “Drug Trafficking in United States”. The research also examines various characteristics of “Illegal Drug Tunnels” and tries to measure its effect. Lastly the research illustrates a variety of factors which are responsible for “Drug Trafficking” and tries to describe the overall effect of it.

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Discussion and Analysis4

Conclusion9

Arizona's Southwest Border Illegal Drug Tunnels

Introduction

Arizona is a major entry point for illegal drugs to the United States because of its long border with Mexico; Mexican-based drug smuggling organizations have dominated the movement of cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin into the state. The state's large expanses of rugged and sparsely inhabited land, significant proportion of residents living in poverty (14.2 percent in 2007), and multiple police jurisdictions, including tribal lands, also complicate enforcement of drug laws. In recognition of this, in 1990 the counties of Cochise, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz, and Yuma were designated as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) by the Office of National Drug Control Policy; it is one of five HIDTAs located on the U.S./Mexican border. Over 30 tunnels used for smuggling have been discovered on the Arizona-Mexico border. Arizona has also suffered from increasing levels of drug-related violence from drug cartels striving to control smuggling routes, particularly in border communities.

Discussion and Analysis

The Mexican authorities, in collaboration with the American agents have discovered yet another underground tunnel built by drug smugglers to transport illegal shipments from Mexico and California. In the operation was seized 32 tons of marijuana. It's definitely one of the largest drug seizures in the United States but the norm for Mexico, where the record is 132 tons of marijuana seized in a single operation. Depth of about five meters long and more or less than 600, the tunnel connects the Mexican city of Tijuana to San Ysidro, California. According to a reporter of the news agency AFP, the warehouse that is the entrance of the tunnel on the Mexican side, is 100 meters from the local branch of the federal police, a military airbase and customs office (The Washington post, 2011).

A similar tunnel had been discovered in the same area on November 16 last year which, say the investigators, reveals a growing expansion of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel after the decline of the Arellano Felix cartel. But if on the one hand, tons of marijuana seized each month testify to the ' rise of the Mexican production, conversely there is an increase in demand from the United States.

The Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, struggling with a bloody battle with drug traffickers (since his inauguration in 2006, have been killed deaths of almost 50 thousand people) last September implicitly asked the U.S. to legalize marijuana in order to strike the huge turnover of international drug dealing. Speaking at the Americas Society and Council of the ...