Border Tunnels, Part 1
Border tunnels are of three general types: Large and Deep, Small
and Shallow, and lastly, those Connecting to Existing Infrastructure.
Border tunnels are constructed
because it is often far more efficient to spend weeks or months
building a tunnel to transport some amount of contraband than
to risk sending that same amount contraband on the surface where
it might easily be detected.
It is often a simple price-performance tradeoff. If the smuggler
has a million pounds of drugs to move -- or a million pounds of
illegal aliens from Afghanistan -- then a tunnel can be a low
cost solution. If the contraband to be smuggled is of tremendous
value -- for example a key terrorist or a nuclear weapon -- then
a tunnel is probably the best choice.
There are all sorts of ways of finding tunnels. Some methods
work and some do not. The methods of tunnel detection in use along
the U.S. / Mexico border seem to come and go in waves, like fads
or the lengths of miniskirts. A major problem for the United States
Border Patrol is that effective tunnel detection methods are deemed
too imprecise
and expensive.
Before one decides to build a tunnel it is imperative that the
threat of possible detection be evaluated. There are four general
methods of detecting tunnels:
Seismic activity (low frequency digging noises and tunnel transit
noises)
Magnetic Anomaly (electrical power lines in the tunnel, metal
digging tools or metal shoring)
Acoustic Activity (higher frequency noises)
Density Anomalies (the tunnel is a hole and so the amount of
earth below the surface changes when you dig a tunnel)
Present urges within the Department of Homeland Security are
for immediate gratification. They have this Giant Urge to just
walk out along the border and -- while using some magical tool
-- find a tunnel in ten minutes. This does not happen.
Although this does not happen, it is this thing that does not
happen that DHS expects to happen and so they continue to use
various sensor systems over and over again expecting a different
result.
