Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Cartels Are Using Firetruck-Sized Drillers To Make Drug Pipelines

Posted by Soulskill on from the looking-forward-to-their-space-rocket-deliveries dept.

Daniel_Stuckey writes "In the beginning, they used catapults, dune buggies, 'jalapeños,' $1 million submarines, and sophisticated drug tunnels to move drugs northward. Now, Mexican drug cartels are taking to high-end industrial drills to carve out literal drug pipelines into the U.S. It's the next big leap in the evolution of the narcos' ingenious smuggle tech. The future of borderland drug running, it turns out, is boring. Jason Kersten reports on the phenomenon in a great GQ feature that focuses on the Sinaloa Cartel, the international crime syndicate believed to be behind the first known narco pipeline in 2008: '...Mexican authorities, responding to reports of a cave-in and flooding near the [All-American] canal, discovered a tunnel unlike anything they'd ever seen. Only ten inches wide, it was essentially a pipe. The Mexican cops traced it back to a house about 600 feet from the border, where they found a tractor-like vehicle with a long barrel on its side—a horizontal directional drill, or HDD.'"

8 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Plotline of Weeds by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 1, Funny

    So basically, the cartels have been watching season 4 of Weeds, which had exactly this tunnel between Mexico and US. Hahah.

    1. Re:Plotline of Weeds by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

      But thankfully they probably won't try to enforce the copyright.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re: Plotline of Weeds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      When industrial-size long range conduit boring machines are outlawed, only outlaws will have industrial-size long range conduit boring machines...

  2. Re:Any drones yet? by Noishkel · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well hell they have their own submarines and now large tunneling machines. Seems like drones are the next logical step.

    If they get to the point where they have their own space program I say we just surrender in the war on drugs and let them run things.

  3. Second pipeline? by CaptQuark · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, was there a second pipeline for all the cash to flow back into Mexico?

    You wouldn't want to interrupt the flow of drugs for something as inconsequential as cash.

    ~~

  4. Colorado resident here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    And man am I stoned - LEGALLY stoned mofos! I am expecting a call from Obama telling me I am under arrest just because I eat to the beat!

  5. Re:Any drones yet? by Mithrandir · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they get to the point where they have their own space program I say we just surrender in the war on drugs and let them run things.

    It's when they start taking over pizza delivery franchises that you have to really begin to worry.

    --
    Life is complete only for brief intervals in between toys or projects -- John Dalton
  6. Re:Or not a plot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Druggernet is not a big truck! It is a series of tubes made by big trucks!