Posted by azdrugrehabctr on September 24, 2014 under AZ Drug Rehab News | 
In August, $1.6 million worth of drugs were seized within just a week at the Arizona-Mexico border. Law enforcement recently stepped up their drug-searching methods, a move which has been paying off handsomely. Once the drugs were seized, the suspects were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations for further questioning. Drug-sniffing dogs were paramount to the cause.
In one seizure of many this week, officers working with drug dogs searched a woman’s car shortly after attempting to cross over from Mexico. They found 20 packages of marijuana under her floor weighing nearly 139 pounds. The drugs had a street value of $69,000.
During another incident, officers arrested an elderly man attempting to smuggle in 14 pounds of methamphetamine. After officers took a closer look at the vehicle where drug dogs had indicated, they found the meth, which had been hidden in a secret compartment between the two front seats. Later that day at the same checkpoint, officers found 22 pounds of cocaine hidden behind another vehicle’s airbag.
During a single week, seizures at the border added up to around $1.6 million. For border control, the battle against drug smuggling is a constant game of cat and mouse. Drug traffickers are always looking for different ways to smuggle the drugs into the country and border control is challenged to stay one step ahead if they want to succeed in controlling the border.
At the end of the week, officers had confiscated drugs hidden in several different places: above a vehicle’s front fender, hidden compartments between seats and behind airbags, inside car seats, inside a vehicle’s doors, under the floor of a vehicle, in suitcases, under a truck bed, and in the crotch area of a woman’s pants.
With the high demand for drugs in our country, it is unlikely that drug smugglers will stop trying to get drugs into our country anytime soon. If we, as a nation, can get to the root of the problem and lower the demand for drugs, perhaps we can make more headway in the fight for the border.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on July 17, 2014 under AZ Drug Rehab News |
As the drug cartels in Latin and South America gain more and more control, the United States is seeing more and more illegal immigrants at its borders. Looking further into this problem shows that the drug activity in the south is spurring on more and more refugees attempting to come into the United States, some being forced to smuggle illegal drugs.
Due to the drug cartels taking hold of much of the human trafficking routes used to get people into the United States, those attempting to cross over are being forced to comply with what the drug cartels are demanding. If individuals cannot come up with the large amount of money the cartels want in order to get the people over the border those people are forced to smuggle in drugs. The cartels target those who cannot afford to pay for protection and in exchange strap large quantities of drugs onto the bodies of those attempting to get into the United States. The drug cartels are also recruiting individuals to smuggle in drugs for money.
One reporter commented, “By making these countries so dangerous and virtually unlivable for its poorest citizens, the cartels have effectively created an incentive for people to flee, thereby providing themselves with more clientele for their human smuggling business.” This is interesting because what it points out is that the drug cartels are cashing in on two lucrative businesses. They are reaping the benefits of the high demand for drugs by United States citizens and cashing in on those attempting a better life in the United States, because the cartels have made life in their own country so unlivable.
The U.S. government is aware that there is an increase in the amount of people attempting to get into the country, but some individuals do not think the government sees the correlation between the drug cartels and the increase in illegal immigrants. In order to really handle the problem, some are calling for the government to get more involved in the disbanding of the drug cartels. As the problem continues to grow many eyes are fixed on governmental solutions, but as stated in many areas of the drug addiction treatment field, reducing the demand for the drugs through effective treatment and prevention will also reduce the amount of drug trafficking that occurs. Boarder control is not the main problem.
