Border Activity on the rise

[Flying Pig]

Good article on seizure being on the rise at the border. For those who havnt been down there, CA has a border fence now.  Although it stops at Yuma AZ.   $40 million in cash seizures, out of the $39 Billion made annually by cartels that ship dope in the US is a drop in the bucket.  Although...$40 million can buy a lot of gear.  Nothing better than using their own money against them. One crime at a time as they say.

Id love to see that Airvan get equipped with a FLIR so we could troll the border at night.  The Guard does it with 3 LTC's on board a C-26 Merlin running two Garrett Turbo prop engines and 400gallons of Jet A every 4 hrs.
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SAN DIEGO (AP) _ U.S. authorities on Tuesday reported a spike in seizures of guns and cash along the Mexican border since they began assigning more agents to stem the flow of southbound contraband.

Nearly 600 illegal weapons were seized along the border by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials from March through September, an increase of more than 50 percent from the same period of 2008.

The agencies seized more than $40 million in cash along the border from mid-March through September, nearly double the amount in the year-ago period.

The seizures represent a tiny fraction of business done by Mexican and Colombian drug lords. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, those drug lords generate $18 billion to $39 billion in wholesale drug proceeds in the United States each year. Cash proceeds are smuggled across the border to Mexico.

But U.S. officials said the figures demonstrate that heightened enforcement is paying off.

"The increases in seizures is no coincidence,'' said John Morton, Homeland Security Department's assistant secretary for ICE. "It's a direct result of increased resources, increased emphasis that we are placing on the southwest border.''

Senior officials from immigration, border patrol and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are meeting in San Diego through Wednesday to discuss ways to combat the flow of guns and drug proceeds south of the border amid Mexican President Felipe Calderon's nationwide crackdown on drug traffickers.

Mexico asked U.S. authorities to trace 12,073 firearms last year, up from only 2,906 in 2007 and 2,654 in 2006, according to the ATF. Of those successfully traced, the firearms bureau said about 90 percent came from the United States.

Kenneth Melson, acting director of the ATF, said lack of training in Mexico is the main obstacle to increasing weapons traces even more. Weapons tracing involves entering serial numbers and other information into a special computer system.

"I think (Mexico's) intent is to try to give them all to us,'' Melson said in an interview. "They're just not in a position to be able to do that right now ... It's a huge effort.''

A Spanish-language version of eTrace, the Web-based method of submitting tracing information, is expected to be available by the end of this year.


(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[blackrain]

Maybe use some of the money for more Surrogate Preds? I'd guess the FAA STCs should already be in place.

Did I read that right? 3 LTCs as the crew? That's a high dollar crew to fly what amounts to a commuter airliner.

[heliodoc]

^^^^ X2

Yep

BUT at least the San Antonio Sewer pipe can carry 3 lean LTC Guard types within weight and balance instead of 3 surly CAP LTC's wearing polos in a C 182 T NAV III thinking and presumably knowing and tellin' everyone that they are even cheaper than a Merlin

Garrett TPE 331's and  400 lbs every 4 hours ?  SAWEEEEET,    just like an old T53L13B or -703 burnin 100 gallons per hour.

CAP is cheaper, but nothing is sweeter than a Jet A or JP-8 turnin and a burnin

[bosshawk]

The T-53L13B and the 703 must have been in a Huey.  Our T-53L15s and L701s burned in the neighborhood of 150 gals an hour.  Maybe the turboprop used more fuel.

[heliodoc]

^^

Uh, yes sir!!

UH-1H and UH-1V and AH-1