Driving Back from Mexico? Check Your Car for Drugs Sapa
go to original January 23, 2015

US Customs and Border Protection inspector checks an electronic ID card at one of the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection lanes at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego. (Denis Poroy/Associated Press)

Drug smugglers are turning people who are granted “trusted travelers” status by the US government into unwitting mules by placing containers with powerful magnets under their cars in Mexico and then recovering the illegal cargo far from the view of border authorities in the United States.

One motorist spotted the containers while pumping gas after crossing into Southern California on January 12 and thought it might be a bomb.

His call to police prompted an emergency response at the Chevron station, and then a shocker: 13.2 pounds (6 kilograms) of heroin were pulled from under the vehicle, according to a US law enforcement official. San Diego police said the drugs were packed inside six magnetized cylinders.

The driver had just used a “trusted traveler” lane at the San Ysidro border crossing, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because some details of the case have not been made public.

Authorities have learned of at least three similar incidents in San Diego since then, all involving drivers enrolled in the enormously popular SENTRI program, which stands for Secure Electronic Network for travelers Rapid Inspection.

There were 12.6 million SENTRI vehicle crossings in fiscal 2013, more than double the 5.9 million four years earlier.

Read the rest at Independent Online

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