Drug Smugglers Build Bridges Over Rio Grande
Reuters
June 16, 1999
EL PASO, Texas - Drug smugglers are using collapsible bridges assembled on the spot to move trucks across isolated stretches of the Rio Grande from Mexico into Texas, the U.S. Border Patrol said Tuesday.
Border Patrol agents stumbled across one such bridge as it was being built over the river near the West Texas border town of Fort Hancock, an area with heavy cross-border narcotics smuggling, officials said.
Traffickers have probably been using similar bridges, made up of several metal sections that can be quickly bolted together, for the past six months in the area.
``We know there must be large groups of people involved in the assembly and smuggling act, based on the sophistication of the whole process,'' said Luis Barker, chief of the Border Patrol in West Texas and New Mexico.
The bridge discovered over the weekend was in a spot about 60 miles southeast of El Paso where the Rio Grande runs four or five feet deep, said Border Patrol spokesman Rick Lucio.
``They put these ramps there because the river is high ... and they know we're not watching that area as closely as other parts of the river that are low. In parts of the river that are low, traffickers often just drive across so we watch those areas closely,'' he said.
Lucio said agents discovered the ramp by accident as it was being assembled in mid-river by a construction gang. The builders spotted the patrol and swam back to Mexico, but agents took possession of the components.
The bridge, weighing about 600 pounds , can be put in place and taken down again in 30 to 45 minutes, Lucio said.
The same technique may be in use at other points along the border river,
Lucio said.
Sounds like a military operation.
It is going to be re-named the George W. Bush "Bridge to the future".
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