Drug insurgents try to defeat increased border policing

Washington Times:

Drug cartel members are using a variety of fronts and subterfuges - from fake tamale stands to child decoys - to gather intelligence about enhanced U.S. border security and exploit weaknesses to send in people and drugs, according to a new report obtained by The Washington Times.

The findings, by the U.S. Army's Asymmetric Warfare Group, underline the growing threat to U.S. security from a porous border. Mexican drug cartels continue to probe for gaps in border defenses while fighting one another and Mexican authorities in a violent conflict that has killed more than 7,000 people in Mexico since the beginning of 2008. U.S. authorities also worry that terrorist groups could exploit vulnerabilities in border security.

According to a report earlier this month by the warfare group about the San Diego-Tijuana border area, the cartels are finding novel ways to move contraband and people into the U.S., including wedging children into gaps in the cement pylons at border barriers.

"The smuggling facilitator or families of the illegal migrants will use children to lodge them in the gaps of the cement pylons, at which point a U.S. fire department is called in to free the child," the report said. "This tactic relies on the U.S. first responders' initiative to rescue or save a human life and subsequently creates a physical gap - which generally takes two weeks to repair - to use for border breaching."

The cartels also use torches in backpacks to cut through fences and tamale stands and personal watercraft for surveillance, the report said. They ship drugs through sewers and may be planning to send them into the U.S. on the backs of men parachuting out of planes.

Cartels already have used hang gliders and other ultralight aircraft to move narcotics into the U.S. These craft can carry about 200 pounds of drugs.

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There is more.

The encouraging thing about the story is that the military is looking into the infiltration methods and developing intelligence on the enemy sources and methods of defeating the border barriers. It also points out why we need an increased force to space ratio along the border to catch the smugglers in the act.