ABSTRACT
In April 2016, U.S. federal agents discovered a half-mile-long underground tunnel linking two sites in Tijuana, Mexico, and Otay Mesa, California. Equipped with electricity, ventilation, an elevator, and a rail system, the “super tunnel” was the largest ever discovered on the border. A Mexican drug cartel used it for drug smuggling: agents seized 14,000 pounds of marijuana and 2,242 pounds of cocaine.2 Between 2011 and 2016, agents discovered 67 tunnels along the United States-Mexico border, which they suspect were used to bring tens of millions of dollars worth of drugs into the U.S. market. Other parts of the world have smuggling tunnels, too. Facing an Israeli blockade after July 2007, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have used tunnels under the border with Egypt to bring in everything from gasoline and cement to medicine and missiles. At one point the tunnels were the largest non-governmental employer in Gaza.3 And in mid-2012, authorities uncovered a 700-meter tunnel under the Ukraine-Slovakia border for bringing contraband cigarettes into the European Union without paying customs duties.4
