Ultralight aircraft used to jump border with Mexico

Washington Times:

Border Patrol agents tracked an ultralight aircraft as it crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and made it 30 miles into the country early Tuesday morning — and when they got to the landing spot, they found two Chinese men who had been smuggled in by the aircraft.

The ultralight had escaped, lifting back off and returning to Mexico, but agents say they did manage to nab a Mexican man waiting in a vehicle near the landing zone in southern California, apparently ready to pick up the Chinese men and deliver them to their destination.

Experts said they had seen ultralights, small aircraft powered by lawn mower-sized engines, used to drop loads of drugs in the U.S. But they were surprised to see them being used to ferry illegal immigrants.

“It’s disturbing,” said Chris Harris, who retired this year after a two-decade career as a Border Patrol agent in San Diego and who suggested it could be a way for cartels to get dangerous people across the border. “If you want to get some operatives in this country very quickly, that’s a way.”

Gloria I. Chavez, chief patrol agent in the El Centro sector of the Border Patrol, agreed that ultralights pose a threat to “national security.”

“These aircraft are able to carry small payloads of dangerous cargo or dangerous people,” she said.

Tuesday’s incident was the second ultralight incursion reported this week near Calexico. Two days earlier, Border Patrol agents tracked an ultralight that crossed the border and descended north of the town, then turned around and flew back toward Mexico.

When agents reached the location they say they found 60 duct-taped bundles with nearly 130 pounds of methamphetamine, with an estimated value of more than $1.4 million.

In Arizona, meanwhile, Border Patrol agents this week said they uncovered a new cross-border tunnel being dug between Nogales on the Mexican side and Nogales on the U.S. side.

The tunnel, which had not been completed, began just a few feet into Mexico and ran 44 feet into the U.S.
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There have been over 500 recent incursions by ultralight aircraft in recent years.  I think the US should consider using lasers to bring them down.