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Drug Catapult Found At US-Mexico Border
suraj.sun writes "According to a Fox News report: 'Drug smugglers trying to get marijuana across the Arizona-Mexico border apparently are trying a new approach — a medieval catapult, capable of launching 4.4 pounds of marijuana at a time. National Guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system at the Naco Border Patrol Station say they observed several people preparing a catapult and launching packages over the International Border fence last Friday evening. The 3-yard tall catapult was found about 20 yards from the US border on a flatbed towed by a sports utility vehicle, according to a Mexican army officer with the 45th military zone in the border state of Sonora.'"
This is an iPhone game waiting to happen.
people being launched using this.. Just wait.
If the video for the story is correct, then that's not a catapult, it's a trebuchet! (Albeit it replaced the counterweight with some sort of elastic cabling.)
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
Not to mention that catapults are all but medieval.
My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
I'd just keep a bunch of officers near where you expect all these packages to land.
I mean surely i'm not the only engineer who's joked that all they really need to do is catapult and parachute to get over the border, with no need for a parachute if they're launching hard projectiles. I mean the range on old catapults and trebuchets was quite well, and could be scaled as a simple matter of physics.
So I suppose next we might find a tunnel that is one mile down and 40 miles under the border to breach the "castle walls" of the united states?
You never realize how much manually made unmanaged "linked" lists suck, till you have src.link.link.link.link...
Tossing drug packages over prison walls and into the yard has been around for years with hit and miss success. (intended)
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
The national started looking for the device when they found a giant baseball glove mounted in the Arizona desert
What the fuck is a yard? Some attempt at medieval humor?
Aha. 0.0136 furlongs tall. Thank-you, Google.
....and I've been down to visit a couple of times.
When we go hiking in the Coronado National Forest, it's staggering the number of Border Patrol officers/vehicles/activity we see along 92 between Bisbee and Sierra Vista.
I don't know how you could get away with anything on that stretch of the border, but given the close proximity of Naco, MX and Naco, AZ, maybe just getting over the fence is all that matters, since the fence is pretty much the width of the border there.
NEIL... is that you buddy?
Normally I'm pro-legalization, but I'm much more pro-catapult. So if anti-drug legislation can bring us the catapults of our dreams, then may it is the answer. Then again, we could legalize and then just require all distribution to be done via catapult. It's a win/win.
Dude, anyone who watches Pumpkin Chunkin knows that Air Canons are much better than catapults.
http://science.discovery.com/tv/punkin-chunkin/
I say "trebuchet"
Let's call the whole siege off...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Am I the only one who pictured this being expanded upon in a Simpsons episode to include an immigrant launcher as well?
And here I was picturing some massive contraption with a range of significant fractions of miles, not a rinky-dink little device to sling a package over a fence. As someone said... scaling it is just a matter of physics. Why go small? With a heavy enough payload wind wouldn't be too much of a factor - you could pretty well calculate where it would land, even over fairly lengthy distances. Just make sure it doesn't show up on nearby radars...
I believe the role of responding to artillery falls to the MRLS, so the Army should just return fire with a couple rockets of cluster bomb submunitions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLRS
While I appreciate the conversion for those of us north of said border, this is marijuana we're talking about, so "2 kilos" works just fine.
Wonder when they will try drones next? Some of those model airplanes are huge, easily big enough to carry a small payload. With the right kits, available on the internet, you could make one of the drones able to fly to a GPS destination potentially dozens of miles past the border.
Making the drone able to land on it's own would be tough, but you could have an operator at the landing area take control of it and land it. The autopilot would be a simple one capable of level flight only.
This wasn't the original intention of this device. There was some confusion because the word "high" wasn't translated properly from English to Spanish
The Internet has given stupid people the resources of intelligent people.
No broken giant wooden rabbits were found on the US side of the border.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
When I read the heading I was excited but it turns out that the Mexicans are just using some kind of launching device instead of a 65-ton fire support 'mech. That would've been way cooler and it would also deter border patrol officers from interfering - you never know if that LRM-20 that just acheived a lock on you carries drugs or explosives.
Then again, wouldn't a Gauss Rifle make for a much more effective delivery system?
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
I always wondered why the cartels haven't invested in UAVs. It must be pretty simple now days to build a GPS guided device with enough payload to make the more expensive drugs worthwhile to ship
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
DEA infiltrates annual "Pun'kin Chunk'in" event claiming they traffic in drug paraphernalia Video crew jailed on suspicion of not respecting their authoritay
What's important is the counter measure. Here is something for the US border patrol to bear in mind:
When faced with enemy trebuchets, cavalry work best due to their high speed and good damage. A small group of Knights make short work of a group of trebuchets. Cavalry archers also work well, especially the Mongol Mangudai due to its bonus damage vs. siege units. Infantry and foot archers are also acceptable but are less desirable due to their lack of speed; this weakness allows the user to spot them early and respond to the situation by unpacking the trebuchets and/or retaliating with an army of his/her own.
Not Stoners!
The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
I suppose we could use this tactic against them. Setup a catapult in each state capitol and fire illegal aliens back at them. It would reduce deportation costs significantly since the only real cost would be a parachute per illegal. Target CalderÃn's house.
...if I'm the only one that originally pictured this is how illegals would get in to this country as well. =P
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
To thank them for all these free drugs, we should catapult them some weapons... preferably catapults!
life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think
One does not simply walk across the US border...
I see they haven't figured out our advanced potato cannon technology yet.
I'd have a personalized plate on my car, but "toxic bachelor" won't fit into 7 letters.
Pot via railgun, that's the next upgrade....
a pipe for moonshine under the Estonian-Latvian border.
FCKGW 09F9 42
How do they know it's drug smugglers? Looks like Mexico's bombing us.
I didn't know they had Pumpkin-Chunkin in Mexico?
In the near future Adam and Jamie will test the validity of catapulting a kilo of actual coke across the border.
Naw, this is about getting high.... Higher than the fence anyway.
"capable of launching 4.4 pounds of marijuana at a time"
would it really fucking kill you to just say 2 kilos?
on their way to Burning Man?
makeing marijuana legal will save alot of money and can make a lot of tax off of it.
Tell me again why it was a bad idea to legalize weed?
The news here portrays the mexican people as being very much anti-legalization (for the US). And certainly Calderon is against it. How common would you say your opinion is?
... to shoot up drugs.
Have gnu, will travel.
Fetchez la vache!
Well, only about 5000 crossed. 200+ died, that is the ones we know about.
I would say the wall worked damn well. How many mexicans are in the US illegally? More then 5000? Somehow I don't think there would be such an issue of just a few thousand Mexicans. Then again, we are talking Republicans... 1 would set them howling.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
pure win.
http://archeleus.com/blog
Or how about a railgun shooting pellets filled with cocaine?
Is that considered as an attack against the US?
This raises questions about the safety of such an operation. A bystander being accidentally hit by the package has a small chance of being knocked down and hitting their head on a rock. This could bring the worldwide death toll of this killer drug from 0 to 1, a massive increase, making the drug almost 1/10,000th as dangerous as aspirin. This is an unacceptable risk. We need to make this drug legal so it can be transported more safely, mitigating these risks.
as evidenced by this story from the end of last year which unfortunately hasn't gotten much time:
http://www.pittsreport.com/2010/11/don-alejo-garza-tamez-true-grit/
(anyone know of an English language version of it from a major news source?)
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
This reminds me of an old Saturday Night Live commercial called Yardapult. Cant seem to find it online though
Ok, so the border patrol creates a catapult, that launches balls of wood engulfed in oil then lit....then sent to the exact x y position of the first said catapult, if history has taught us anything, is that you must retaliate in kind, in this case, with a catapult, but better ammo.
Watch them burn baby!
Interesting. Too bad he didn't get all of them, or survive. He might have been better off leaving the gas on in the house and watching the hilarity ensue from nearby (preferably in range in case there were any left) since the house was going to be lost anyway.
I can see this expanding to illegal immigration and a Warhammer trailer comes to mind :D
are taking pot-shots at the U.S.????
(thank you - I'll be here all week... :-)
What needs to happen is they need to find someone like http:www.buettsfence.com to build a professional fence to keep the idiots out of our country.
It now appears that the US Army is launching drugs into mexico via catapult if you examine the the video. Otherwise why would you need a team of special forces on the US side of the border and why would the catapult be on the US side of the border. Either that or the soldiers are on the Mexican side of the border and are launching bricks into the US. Interesting...
4.4 pounds
Is it really that hard to use the Metric system? Are Fox News consumers not savvy enough?
Wow; congratulations to that guy for his guts, even though he paid for it.
Don't see the practical point of the "I'll be waiting for you" announcement, though.
Granted, he had the skill and equipment for it, I can see the less-skilled less-equipped trying and being even less sucessful
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
We have incoming! Human wave tactics being supplemented with light artillery...
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.