Illegal drugs flow over and under U.S. border

From tunnels to trucks with ramps, Arizona is battleground with traffickers
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Drug smugglers move underground

Oct. 22: NBC's Mark Potter takes a close-up look at the increasing use of underground tunnels to transport illegal drugs under the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Mexico under siege

The death toll is spiraling throughout Mexico as a war between the country's government and the drug cartels intensifies.
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Interactive: Mexican drug cartels
Learn more about how Mexican drug cartels are extending their reach farther into the U.S.

By Mark Potter

updated 5:50 p.m. CT, Thurs., Oct . 22, 2009






NOGALES, Ariz. – Just before sundown, the nightly ritual here begins. On the south side of the rusting, battered fence which separates the United States from Mexico, young men climb the bluffs overlooking the border. They will serve as spotters for other Mexicans who try to cross the border illegally under cover of night. These hilltop observers watch for U.S. Border Patrol agents guarding the north side of the boundary and alert the smugglers huddled near the fence below when it's safe to attempt a crossing.

Farther west in the vast and rugged Arizona desert, smugglers are also busy and routinely take advantage of what U.S. drug agents describe as wide gaps in the border security system there.

“It is very conducive to smuggling activities,â€