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As America begins to spend millions if not billions on a border fence to bring an end to illegal immigration, drug smuggling, human trafficking, and the threat of terrorists crossing the border without American law enforcement knowledge, one issue that has to be addressed is what to do about the tunnels being burrowed from Mexico into the Unites States.  There has also been tunnels found between Canada and the U.S. along the Canadian border as well.  These tunnels are growing in complexity and has been a growing problem since the late eighties and early nineties.  The Tunnels have been use along the Southern border with Mexico to smuggle illegal aliens,

Drugs, stolen goods, humans being illegally trafficked, weapons and more.  Law enforcement are finding them, but they are saying that some have been in operation for years.  Along the Northern border with Canada drug smugglers have created tunnels as well that may be used for human trafficking, weapons but definitely are being used for drugs.  Tunnels have become a necessity to smugglers since a crackdown that began after the events of September 11, 2001.  The newer tunnels are growing in complexity that includes railways, lighting and ventilation systems.  The time and manpower to create the complex underground pathways shows a commitment for increase flow.  To own or operate a tunnel into America would have to be an extremely powerful and profitable toll bridge worth billions of dollars.

The thing is that organized crime in Mexico is always involved in major operations such as this.  They have the resources and manpower to create the tunnels.  It would take quite a bit of both to complete the advanced tunnels being found in California and Arizona.

Terrorists Tunnels? It is very important to understand why these drug and human trafficking tunnels are so dangerous to the safety and security of the United States.  As stated drug dealers and human traffickers are the groups that are known to use the tunnels and that in itself is cause for concern and attention.  However the thought that terrorists that are dead set to do harm in America could also use these tunnels or better yet create their own should be a major concern.  What may be going on beneath American borders can be even more dangerous than what is above in the open.    Far from the tiny passages or crawl spaces one would expect or envision from a prison breakout movie. The tunnels are large and  lots of product can be moved at once regardless if it is humans, drugs, weapons or anything else that is profitable for the smugglers.    The second disturbing point is that law enforcement has acknowledged that the drug cartels are setting up training camps for recruits similar to those in Afghanistan created by al Qaeda.  This shows that the drug cartels are willing to challenge the Mexican police and are even advertising for recruits.  The camps are near the borders with United States.  The Mexican drug cartels are advertising for young men to step up and come and join their ranks to fight the Mexican army. The ads and banners promise those who join will make good money have food and a place to stay even while in training.  Federal authorities say these camps have Afghanistan and other middle eastern instructors who teach the latest military fighting tactics that are utilized in Iraq and Afghanistan by the Islamic radicals that are fighting and killing American and allied troops in those countries. Mexican officials admit they know of special training camps in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas and Michoacan, where newly recruited Zetas take intensive six-week training courses in weapons, tactics and intelligence gathering. Former Mexican national security adviser and ambassador to the United Nations, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, stated, that "Spanish and Islamic terrorist groups are using Mexico as a refuge… In light of this situation, there are continuing investigations aimed at dismantling these groups so that they may not cause problems". He also mentioned that the terrorist groups in question are located in the northern part of the country. "Islamic people" in Mexico sparked speculation among observers that the Lebanese Shi´ite terrorist organization Hizbollah have established cells in Mexico. Iran is believed providing at least some of the money for this recruiting and training program. The training camps are teaching hit and run gorilla technique’s. Cells of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) have sent their seasoned veterans to oversee the training of the new troops and to direct the war against the Mexican government on behalf of the Mexican Cartels. Extremist cells tied to Hizballah, Islamic Jihad, and al Qaeda are operating in Mexico and pose a potential threat to U.S. businesses, military personnel, and civilians throughout the region. There is enough evidence to suggests that terrorists are not only in the region but have aligned with some of the drug cartels.  The terrorist groups are not there just to help the drug cartels, but must have a bigger plan in place.  The locations near the border for their activities is enough evidence to warrant that they are wanting to get closer to America in a hostile area that has seen years of violence and non government control.  The drug cartels have run the show in these regions for some time.  Terroristplanet.com has stated before that the Mexico - U.S. border has the makings of the lawless Afghanistan - Pakistan border region that has bred extremism and a flourishing drug trade as a result of poverty and ongoing violence.  The recipe is the same in both places and now the terrorists have recognized it and are taking advantage of a disinterested America and a mostly absent Mexican government. The drug and smuggling tunnels in Mexico and the Canada are dangerous.  American, Mexican and Canadian law enforcement are locating some of them but are stating that they have been in operation for years.  It is not an easy job.  The borders are large and as you will read in the clippings below that some travel from buildings on one side of the border to another building on the other.  More resources are needed. The Border Fence is just one part of the security measures that are needed to secure America.  Surveillance equipment and intelligence gathering is crucial to locate and destroy these dangerous entry ways into America.

Below are a collection of news clipping collected to show how the problem is not going away even as Border Patrol agents on both side of the border fight for control of the borders themselves.

February 28, 2002 · Jacki Lyden speaks with Donald Thornhill, spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Agency, about the discovery of a 1000-foot tunnel used to smuggle drugs from Mexico to the United States. He says the tunnel connects a private home in the mountains east of San Diego to a house in the Mexican border town of Tecate. The tunnel is lighted and has steel rails to carry carts through it. Officials guess it had been in operation for two to three years.

October 3, 2003  Highly developed drug tunnel discovered in Arizona.  During the second week of September, one of the most complex drug smuggling rings was discovered. It was connected to the notorious Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin Guzmán Loera.  Guzmán Loera is one of the most feared and sought-after Mexican drug kingpins. He is known to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for his use of underground tunnels as a means of smuggling, like the one that was recently discovered.  In 2001, he escaped from a maximum-security prison in Guadalajara, Mexico. His current whereabouts are unknown, but it is certain that he is fully established and producing massive amounts of cocaine.  The Guzmán Loera tunnel stretches under the border, from a poor border town in Sonora to the clean-cut, well-groomed suburban town of Nogales, Arizona. The tunnel is thirteen feet deep, nine hundred and eighty-five feet long and is the best-equipped drug tunnel ever discovered. It contains rails and rail cars believed to have shipped tons of cocaine and marijuana.

July 25, 2005   Drug tunnel stirs fears about northern border.  In the most remote parts of the 4,000-mile border the United States shares with Canada, more than 200 roads snake between the two countries, miles from homes and shops — unwatched and unprotected.  News last week that authorities had discovered a tunnel for smuggling marijuana from British Columbia into Washington state — the first tunnel found on the northern border — has focused new attention on what has long been known as the world's longest undefended border.  While authorities on both sides have beefed up security and added staffing since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many believe the stretch remains hugely vulnerable — to illegal crossings, drug smuggling and especially terrorism.  In recent years, security measures have been added on both sides of the border.

On the Canadian side, the border is monitored by 23 teams of border agents assisted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and local police. Still, most of Canada's 160 land and maritime border crossings are staffed by only one unarmed guard — and long stretches between entry points go unmanned.  On the U.S. side, new camera-surveillance systems have gone online, and since Sept. 11 the Border Patrol force has been boosted by about one-third, to 1,000. Also, the Department of Homeland Security has added small air and marine operations near Blaine and Plattsburgh, N.Y., and plans others in Michigan, North Dakota and Montana.

January 27, 2006  SAN DIEGO -- Federal officials, who are stunned by the discovery of the longest border tunnel ever found, think the tunnel was constructed by a well-known drug cartel.  John Fernandes, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's San Diego office, said he suspected the tunnel was the work Tijuana's Arellano-Felix drug smuggling syndicate or another well-known drug cartel. Fernandes said tougher enforcement above ground had forced smugglers to dig below

Mexican investigators found the tunnel entrance Tuesday inside a warehouse near the airport, about 150 yards south of the border. A 6-by-10-foot cement shaft equipped with a pulley dropped about 75 feet to the tunnel.  The tunnel exited into a large, two-story white cinderblock warehouse in an industrial San Diego neighborhood near the border.  Authorities found more than 2 tons of marijuana in what they say is the longest and one of the most sophisticated cross-border tunnels ever discovered along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The tunnel ran about 2,400 feet from a warehouse near the airport in Tijuana, Mexico, to a warehouse in San Diego's Otay Mesa industrial district, Michael Unzueta, a special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said.  The size and scale of the tunnel -- the 21st discovered in more than four years along the Mexican border -- stunned authorities, who said that the passageway revealed the lengths smugglers will go to evade detection.

At least 60 feet below U.S. soil, authorities found a tunnel floor lined with cement, lights that ran down one of the hard soil walls and air piped down from the surface, he said. An adult could stand in the 5-foot-high shaft.  It was like being in a cavern or a cave," Unzueta said. "It's just huge, absolutely incredible."  The marijuana was found on the tunnel's Mexican side. About 200 pounds of marijuana was also discovered on the U.S. side, Unzueta said.  Last week, Border Patrol agents discovered a 35-foot-long tunnel beneath the U.S.-Mexico border in after it caved in and the asphalt roadway above it collapsed. U.S. authorities said the tunnel ended in a patch of vacant land near the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego. Three other tunnels have been discovered this month in the Tijuana-San Diego area.

June 13, 2007  Border Patrol finds two drug tunnels in Nogales.  Border Patrol agents found over 350 pounds of marijuana in a storm drain tunnel last week. Friday, a certified tunnel unit with Border Patrol, along with their Mexican counterparts, started searching tunnels in Mexico into Arizona. During their search in the tunnels, they found a hand-dug drug tunnel.  The tunnel actually runs underneath I-19 and comes out near exit 1-A in the city, a length of about 150 yards.  Border Patrol's Andy Adame said, "You can see where they cut the sides of the galvanized. They cut that and made a tunnel that runs around and reconnects." Border agents say that smugglers used the tunnel for their get aways.  Adame said, "When we dropped down, you could see the bodies going around us and scooting back into Mexico." Agents say the smugglers work in the late evening or early mornng when there's little traffic off I-19.  They bring a vehicle down here, use a rope to pull the marijuana into the vehicle, and off they go. When agents went through the tunnel, they found water bottles and a pick. They also discovered a makeshift tray to smuggle their illegal cargo.  Adame said, "It's just an aluminum tray. They run this, put it in the ground, run ropes so they don't even have to use a body to bring it across." Agents say that there's a chance the tunnel could collapse, so they have notified the Arizona Department of Transportation.  Border Patrol agents don't know how long this tunnel has been in existence, but they do know that it's one tunnel drugs won't be coming out of anymore. Border patrol officials say that were it not for the cooperation of their Mexican counterparts, they would have never found the tunnels.

6/29/2007 NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) — U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agents executing simultaneous raids discovered a recently completed smuggling tunnel linking the two countries, officials said Friday. The entrances to the tunnel, described as a sophisticated passageway its builders planned to use to smuggle drugs, were discovered in a home in Nogales, Ariz., and an apartment in Nogales, Mexico, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Five people were arrested during the raid on the Mexican location. No arrests had yet been made on the U.S. side of the border. The investigation has been underway since April, said Ramona Sanchez, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman. The tunnel was about 3 feet wide and 100 yards long, she said. Agents who served a search warrant late Thursday at the tiny, one-story home found the tunnel entrance hidden beneath plywood sheets weighted down with bags of dirt inside a utility room. The tunnel itself was reinforced in areas with wooden supports and sand bags and had a lighting system, but no ventilation. The home was largely unfurnished, and searchers found picks, a jackhammer and other excavation equipment. The tunnel was the largest discovered along the U.S.-Mexico border since January 2006, when a tunnel extending nearly a half-mile from San Diego to Tijuana was found. Federal officials said the tunnel discovered Thursday has been temporarily sealed and will be filled in after the investigation is complete.
Federal officials said 40 tunnels have been discovered crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and California since surveillance was increased following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Dec 5, 2007 TIJUANA, Mexico – Gunmen killed the police chief of a Mexican city bordering California Tuesday by shooting him some 50 times in an apparent revenge attack after police found a drug-smuggling tunnel under the border. From today's U-T: Agent finds pot-filled container with cross-border tunnel beneath
Gunmen broke into the house of Tecate police chief Juan Soriano in the early hours of the morning and shot him repeatedly in the face and torso as he slept in bed with his wife, an official at the Baja California state attorney general's office told Reuters. His wife was not hit. The killing of Soriano, who had started his job only last week, appeared to be an act of revenge against Mexican police, who Monday discovered a tunnel nearly a mile long running into California from Tecate near the Pacific coast after a tip-off from the U.S. Border Patrol.

September 17th, 2008 Eight people have been charged in Los Angeles for their connection to a 150 yards long underground drug tunnel. From the Los Angeles Times: The men, one of whom was identified as a suspected Los Angeles-area gang member, were arrested this month inside a small house where the well-constructed passageway began. The tunnel, equipped with ventilation, electricity and a rail-and-cart system to ferry material and dirt, stretched 150 yards, ending within feet of the California border. Mexican authorities say the sophisticated design suggests that a major drug cartel financed the project. Drug trafficking in Mexicali is controlled by the Sinaloa-based cartel led by Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, but authorities have yet to determine whether the group was responsible. The tunnel appeared destined for a quiet neighborhood in the Imperial Valley city of Calexico. In recent years, organized-crime groups have tried to build at least seven tunnels in the Calexico-Mexicali area, taking advantage of flat terrain and dense cross-border neighborhoods. The tunnels, which can cost $1 million, are closely guarded secrets that often enjoy protection by local police

October 6, 2008  Mexican man gets 2 1/2-year sentence for drug tunnel   SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A Mexican man has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for his role in a secret tunnel that was used to smuggle marijuana across the border to the United States. Antonio Morales Barrios told a federal judge Monday in San Diego that he regretted his actions. He will also lose his legal residency.  Prosecutors say the 41-year-old was the caretaker of a home in downtown Calexico, about 51 miles west of Yuma, that housed a tunnel used to smuggle drugs from Mexico to California.  Morales pleaded guilty in May to possession of more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana with intent to distribute.  The tunnel discovered in September 2006 is one of at least 60 found along the U.S.-Mexico border since 2001.