Border Security
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Southbound Busts
November 24, 2009 - 11:05 AM | by: Adam HousleyFollow Adam on TWITTER
On the California-Mexico border in San Ysidro, the drug cartels are being squeezed and U.S. agents couldn't be happier. We first featured the plan to crackdown on the cartel runners about 8 months ago, now as the first numbers are released by the Department of Homeland Security, we will be the first to report and the only on the border since we were tipped off about the impressive seizures by our agents.
Here are some of the highlights...seizures of unreported currency departing the country grew 108 percent to $1,460,602. That's cash being sent directly back to the cartels to help fund their brutal war south of the border...and that money total comes from just here in the San Diego sector. Nationwide, more than 57 million dollars was seized, a 74 percent increase in cash grabbed by our agents from the cartels.
Northbound CPB seized almost 145 tons of illegal narcotics and apprehended more than 42,000 immigration violators during federal fiscal year 2009. In California, where we sit atop a mountain overlooking the busiest port of entry in the world, the total amount of narcotics seized during the year at California’s six ports of entry with Mexico increased 20 percent compared to the previous period. Marijuana seizures increased 21 percent to 277,542 pounds; cocaine seizures decreased 13 percent to 7,906 pounds; heroin seizures increased 51 percent to 619 pounds; and methamphetamine confiscations increased 82 percent to 3,693 pounds.
As you can see just by the numbers, agents here on the U.S. side are making an impressive dent. They are not sure if it is the cartels sending more stuff north and south, or if it's more of a "balloon effect." That's the analogy when you squeeze both ends of a balloon in bulges in the middle. In any case, more boots on the ground, better training and new technology is really giving our men and women the upper hand in enforcement. Both inbound and outbound numbers are up big time and much of it also has to do with increased enforcement in more rural areas along the border.
I have come here to the Tijuana area since I was a kid and as a correspondent for Fox over the course of the last 8 years. To call the change dramatic would be an understatement. As a kid, it was all about a quick and fun trip to grab food and souvenirs. Then as the cartels became more powerful, the area was overrun. Now massive fences line the border with a road in between and the famous 'Smugglers Gulch' has been filled. Cameras sit atop poles and more agents are on the ground. As agents make some great progress in both direction busts, another change is coming....a massive multi million dollar renovation of the San Ysidro port of entry, which will add some much needed infrastructure to the southbound lanes.
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