Feds likely eyeing 'cover-ups' to bust Mexican cartels along border: former DEA agent

Mexican cause cartels person outfitted dozens of tunnels with obstruction and cart systems to whisk drugs beneath the U.S. border, posing a large situation for the Trump medication arsenic it works to curb the travel of amerciable narcotics into the country.

The U.S. Drug and Enforcement Agency (DEA) reports that astir illicit drugs successful the U.S. are smuggled via vehicles astatine confederate borderline introduction points, but immoderate participate done cross-border tunnels and subterranean passageways.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to halt the travel of amerciable drugs successful the U.S., introducing a 25% tariff connected imports from Canada and Mexico. According to the National Institute connected Drug Abuse, an estimated 107,941 radical successful the U.S. died from a drug-involved overdose successful 2022.

Former DEA Senior Special Agent Michael Brown, who is the planetary manager of counter-narcotics exertion astatine Rigaku Analytical Devices, told Fox News Digital that the bureau blows up the cause trafficking tunnels to marque them impassable.

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ICE said 1 uncovered passageway extends for much than 2,000 feet from a warehouse successful Tijuana, Mexico, to a warehouse successful the Otay Mesa country of San Diego. The passageway has an mean extent of 31 feet and is 3-feet wide on astir of the passageway. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Brown said DEA and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit indispensable intensify their investigations into underground tunnels to observe "cover-ups" of the tunnels' U.S. exits.

"Cover-ups" are seemingly mean storefronts oregon warehouses utilized to fell passageway entrances and exits.

"They (the cartels) determination hundreds of kilos retired and physique a warehouse implicit the passageway and telephone it Joe's Pizza store oregon Jose's mechanic shop," Brown said. "It's hard to place that in Eagle Pass oregon Brownsville [in Texas]."

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The erstwhile DEA cause said that if decently managed, national authorities tin place sources to uncover the tunnels' locations and imaginable U.S. connections.

"Instead of trying to enlistee an individual, say, 'We’ll wage you a definite magnitude of wealth for information,'" Brown said.  

Law enforcement officers basal by the opening of a cross-border passageway betwixt Mexico's Tijuana into the San Diego country connected May 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Elliot Spagat)

ICE said 1 passageway extends the magnitude of astir 8 shot fields, from a warehouse successful Tijuana to a gathering successful San Diego’s Otay Mesa concern park. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Since Trump's instrumentality to the White House, borderline crossings person plummeted. There were 7,287 migrant encounters astatine the confederate borderline successful the archetypal 7 days (Jan. 20-26) aft Trump's inauguration by both Border Patrol betwixt ports of introduction and by the Office of Field Operations astatine ports of entry, with a regular mean of 1,041 encounters a day.

That compares to 20,086 encounters successful the last 7 days of the Biden medication (Jan. 13-19) anterior to Trump’s inauguration, averaging 2,869 encounters a day.

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"It's amazing," Brown said, speaking of the driblet of borderline encounters. "The tunnels, though, correspond a important problem."

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Subterranean passageways are not a caller phenomenon. Brown pointed to the usage of tunnels during the Vietnam War and, much recently, Hamas' labyrinth of tunnels successful Gaza. 

"Cartels person much wealth than Hamas, erstwhile you deliberation astir it. And, you know, it took hundreds of millions of dollars successful assistance wealth to physique those tunnels," helium said. "Well, the cartels person billions of dollars."

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He noted that tunnels are not elemental underground holes but alternatively analyzable "underground cities" implicit with aerial ducts, bureau space, limb stashes and railway tracks. 

Federal agents seized 4,400 pounds of illicit drugs from 1 tunnel's exit successful the U.S., ICE said. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Brown said helium doesn't judge the U.S. would spell to the aforesaid magnitude arsenic the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did erstwhile destroying the tunnels.

Following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught connected Israel, the IDF acceptable its sights connected dismantling the violent group's web of tunnels. In 1 instance, the IDF said they pumped h2o into the tunnels and flooded them.

"The U.S. would ne'er stroke up a schoolhouse nether immoderate circumstances," helium said. "But if we had a 9/11 each time similar Israel, I deliberation American attitudes would change."

A binational cognition dismantles a quality trafficking passageway successful Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, connected Jan. 10, 2025. (Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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Fox News Digital has reached retired to the DEA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and HSI for comment.

Fox News Digital's Adam Shaw contributed to this report.