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.'"

Comments

Angry Drugs

[Anonymous Coward]

This is an iPhone game waiting to happen.

Re:Angry Drugs

[Skuld-Chan]

That's more of an android game ;).

Anyone else have this idea?

[Umuri]

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?

Re:Anyone else have this idea?

[dkleinsc]

As Penn and Teller pointed out on their show Bullshit!, the border "wall" that conservatives keep on talking about building would be completely ineffective. A reasonably enterprising illegal immigrant could breach or bypass said wall in approximately 2 minutes (either climbing over, digging under, or busting a hole in the middle), and given that they've likely traveled for days just to get to the border, the extra 2 minutes aren't going to stop them. Heck, even the Berlin Wall didn't stop people trying to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin - people got past it with balloons, tunneling, and crashing border stations among other methods.

On the upside, I view those as proof that human ingenuity can beat oppression.

How they found it

[Fauxbo]

The national started looking for the device when they found a giant baseball glove mounted in the Arizona desert

Pro-Catipult

[redemtionboy]

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.

You say "catapult"

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

I say "trebuchet"

Let's call the whole siege off...

Re:You say "catapult"

[g0bshiTe]

Honestly I prefer my illegal narcotics to enter the country via trebuchet as well.

Re:You say "catapult"

[meerling]

Incorrect, they can easily have the exact same firing characteristics. The difference is it's easier to build more powerful trebuchets than catapults, and they can often be readied faster as well if the designers planned for it.

The height of the "trajectory arc" is completely based on the release angle and force. The method used to impart moment to the swinging launch arm has no bearing on the trajectory. It could be a freaking hydraulic ram swinging that launch arm, so long as the release angle and force are the same, you get the exact same result.

Re:Trebuchet

[msauve]

Your attempt at being pedantic fails. A trebuchet is just a specific type of catapult. The device is in fact a catapult.

Re:It's a trebuchet

[by (1706743)]

Not to mention that catapults are all but medieval.

I'd say that launching rotten tomatoes in a catapult would be mid-evil. Launching pillows would be low-evil, and launching nails and rocks hi-evil. But that's just me.

Re:Next you will see

[sglewis100]

people being launched using this.. Just wait.

MythBusters already covered that.