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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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Drug Smugglers Head to Sea on .... Surfboards?

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(Newser) – Improved security along the US-Mexico border has pushed enterprising smugglers to the sea in any manner of craft, the New York Times reports. Authorities have been catching twice as many illegal immigrants as usual—and seized 7 times the typical quantity of drugs—in recent months from boats and beaches, where smugglers sprint past startled sunbathers. One enterprising man was intercepted on a surfboard with a duffle bag full of pot.

The offshore upticks coincide with a newly fortified stretch of border fencing near the ocean. “It’s like spillover from a dam,” says the commander of the Coast Guard's antismuggling effort in San Diego. US officials have requested more equipment, but that may not be enough. “It’s always a fight between technology and the ingenuity of smugglers,” an expert says.

Members of US Coast Guard law enforcement detachment 404 survey the deck of a self-propelled, semi-submersible craft seized for carrying almost 7 tons of cocaine off the Guatemalan coast.
Members of US Coast Guard law enforcement detachment 404 survey the deck of a self-propelled, semi-submersible craft seized for carrying almost 7 tons of cocaine off the Guatemalan coast.   (AP Photo/US Navy - Nico Figueroa)
Surfboard used to smuggle pot from Mexico.
Surfboard used to smuggle pot from Mexico.   (Department of Homeland Security)
Marine Corps Major Kristen Lasica, right, looks over a 24-foot boat that had been used to smuggle illegal immigrants as it sits at a dock at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.
Marine Corps Major Kristen Lasica, right, looks over a 24-foot boat that had been used to smuggle illegal immigrants as it sits at a dock at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.   (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
Mexican army sailors show to the press five men that were detained at sea on a boat with cocaine in the Navy port of Salina Cruz, Mexico Monday Feb. 16, 2009.
Mexican army sailors show to the press five men that were detained at sea on a boat with cocaine in the Navy port of Salina Cruz, Mexico Monday Feb. 16, 2009.   (AP Photo)
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11 comments
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riffran
Jul 18, 09 8:45 AM CDT
time to train the sharks....bwoooohahahaha Reply
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+2
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Sauerkraut
Jul 18, 09 4:05 PM CDT
can they have lasers?
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0
Thinker
Jul 18, 09 9:27 AM CDT
Stupid waste of money, resources and people's lives. Tax drugs and fund health care and education with the proceeds. Reply
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+6
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DJM420
Jul 18, 09 11:28 AM CDT
apparently you're one of the few people 'thinking'
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+3
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Sauerkraut
Jul 18, 09 4:06 PM CDT
If any military branch deserves more funding its the US Coast Guard.
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