Thread: Mexico to start screening vehicles at border

Mexico to start screening vehicles at border

Officials want to curb contraband leaving U.S.

By Leslie Berestein Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. April 30, 2009

Unsupervised entry of cars and trucks from San Diego into Tijuana will soon be a thing of the past, Mexico's customs agency says.

By midsummer, the Puerta Mexico checkpoint, through which drivers on Interstate 5 travel into Mexico, will be equipped with technology intended to help combat the southbound smuggling of guns, cash and other contraband by drug-trafficking organizations.

While the technology will enhance national security, Mexican officials say, some southbound delays are likely.

The equipment, already installed at several ports of entry in northeastern Mexico, consists of automated license plate readers, scales and scanners to identify the type of vehicle and detect abnormal weights.

Although the technology does not reveal contraband inside vehicles, those that arouse suspicion are to be referred to secondary inspection, agency officials said. License plates will be checked against a database to determine whether the vehicle has been stolen or used in a crime.

The project is part of a Mexican government plan for upgrading its 21 border crossings, 19 of them along its border with the United States, by 2012. Vehicles now often enter Mexico unchecked.

In a news conference yesterday at the Caltrans office in San Diego, officials from Aduana Mexico, the national customs agency, explained how the system works and the timeline for putting it in place locally.

Across from San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, construction is slated to begin by the end of May or early June, with test runs of the technology by late July, said Lucero Zamora, an operations administrator for the agency.

While construction is to take place on only one of Puerta Mexico's seven available lanes at a time, travelers accustomed to rush-hour delays are likely to see more congestion. The checkpoint accommodates a daily average of 38,000 southbound vehicles, with a rush-hour peak of about 3,700 between 5 and 6 p.m., the agency said.

“We want to affect the operation as little as possible,â€

They see how much cash we have been finding, and keeping, and they want to get in on that free money.

RED ALERT!!!!STOP AMNESTY!!!

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