Tour of secret smuggling tunnel

CNN tours a pretty amazing tunnel between the US and Mexico used to smuggle drugs. The entrance on one side is in the bathroom of a warehouse. The entire floor of the bathroom is on a hydraulic lift to bring people up and down.

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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MrJM

“secret smuggling tunnel”?

C’mon guys. I know CNN’s ratings are way down, but I still think that if Anderson Cooper knows about it, this drug smuggling tunnel is probably not a secret.
- max_supernova
  
  Did you watch it?
  
  Authorities discovered it before it was finished and have let the press in to see what was going on.
woid

I get it, they were muffling the sound of their jackhammers with those little styrofoam boards… no wonder nobody heard them!

This reminds me of the multi-story underground caves that Al Qaeda was supposed to have had in Afghanistan, presumably abandoned now. Rumsfeld was running around with diagrams of these underground apartment complexes, saying there were “many of them” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm6ebCN9oa0).

So how many of the many did we ever find? Or is this another of the known unknowns?

.
doombilly

How much blow did AC smuggle up his “tunnel?” /sorry
Anonymous

I think you could assume it was a secret until it was discovered by Mexican authorities and shut down.
Suds

Ja JA JA ja ja, If Anderson knew how he just got trolled! This is FAKE! Nobody digs tunnels, its too easy to get things over in cars.
Si ustedes entienden espaÃ±ol, saben que la verdad cuestion queda en la demanda que los estados unidos pide CADA dia.

This IS FAKE! The “drug war” is just a question of supply and demand, and it is MUCH easier to get things over the border in cars than dig holes in the ground. Sorry to sound so cynical, but I get better news about the smuggling trade from my local radio.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeEeGYnYLz4 < Los Tigres dan Mejor reportaje.
- Suds
  
  Good intro to Narco-corridos by NPR here > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113664067
ramosity

I feel a little bad for Anderson Cooper, this is all he’s got going on?
Karl

Wait, if Anderson Cooper is down in a tunnel, who is going to read Twitter feeds to us on CNN?
Anonymous

This tunnel could not have been used to smuggle people or drugs. It was not complete. It never had an exit in the US.
Quiet Noises

Did he just say… styrophone?
Anonymous

Could they not have laid back, watched, and waited for the tunnel to be finished? The gov’t could have a more valuable asset to sieze, 2 groups to arrest instead of one, and probably could have scammed some killer blow. Now Anderson Cooper’s keeping it all for himself (that wasn’t a sandbag). Oh, silly coppers.
lewis stoole

maybe they should have waited just one more week? what was the hurry? now they will never know who the insider business was on the usa side of the border.
- Anonymous
  
  Probably because the whole setup was staged in order to gain support for more homeland security/border patrol funding. If it were authentic, why would they have not been able to figure out who made it let alone where it was going.
Cepphus Grylle

What makes for a “primitive” electrical system. I saw a fuse box and some new, orange insulated power cables. Looks at least as good as in my house.

For primitive, I expect uninsulated wires twisted together.
dnafrequency

CNN’s own video summary is wrong. This tunnel was never used to smuggle anything as it was never completed.
Anonymous

wait, at the end of the tunnel, there was a vent that went up. Didn’t Anderson look outside to see where it ended up? He could have solved the case!!!!
Anonymous

… what could have been done if this projkt was done ‘real’ high-tech ?

All those poor imigrants and those beautifull stash… just move over the border just like ‘this’…

…hhmmmm cheap weed….
johnphantom

@ woid:

They found exactly *zero* Al Qaeda fortresses.
Sekino

I first read Tour of secret snuggling tunnel *facepalm*
Anonymous

What do you call a tunnel with only one end? A hole.