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The Creative Side Of Mexican Drug Smugglers: They’re Now Launching Drugs Into The U.S. With Cannons
December 12, 2012
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Say what you want about international drug smugglers, but you have to admit - they are a creative bunch.

Well, the latest twist in the war on drugs is like something out of the U.S. civil war - sort of.

Smugglers in Mexico are now literally shooting drugs across the American border with cannons.

Now, we should be clear - they're not actually using old school cannons. Instead, they're using those pressured cannons that launch T-shirts at a ball game.

U.S. Border Patrol agents say they seized more than 30 cans - each filled with 2.5 lbs of marijuana -that were launched from Mexico into Arizona.

They believe the cans were fired about 500 feet, sometime after sunset. In all, agents found 85 pounds of marijuana inside worth $42,500 on the street.

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They also found a tank with carbon dioxide, which would've been used to shoot the pot over the border fence to someone waiting to pick it up, who likely didn't show up in time.

The plan fell apart when a local citizen saw the cans in a plowed field and called police. Mexican authorities searched their side of the border, but no arrests have been made.

"By actually shooting it over the fence, they don't have to worry about mules or smugglers actually backpacking it across," Kyle Estes, a Border Patrol public affairs officer in Arizona, told a local paper.

As crazy as all this sounds, smugglers have tried some pretty bizarre stuff in the past to get drugs into the U.S. - mainly to avoid having to go through a border checkpoint.

This past summer, U.S. federal agents discovered an underground 755-foot tunnel, running from a business in San Luis, Arizona to a business in Mexico. It was 60 feet deep and had been used for about six months.

In October, two smugglers to drive a jeep full of drugs over the border fence by using a makeshift ramp.

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Trouble is, the SUV got stuck on the fence. The men managed to take off with the drugs before U.S. border officers showed up.

Also this year, border agents chased a go-cart that was "painted beige and fitted with knobbly off-road tires" through the Arizona desert.

Apparently, it was pulling a trailer filled with 217 pounds of marijuana, worth about $100,000. The smugglers got away, but U.S. agents kept the go-cart.

In August, U.S. agents seized nine bundles of pot that had been dropped from an ultra-light aircraft flying from Mexico.

And last year, U.S. authorites caught smugglers on video using a catapult (like out of medieval times) to launch bales of pot across the border. Mexican officials found the catapult after it was abandoned.

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"You know, as we continue to tighten the border more and more, they'll find every method they can explore to get their drug loads over," Agent Estes said.

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