Thread: X-Ray Gives Border Officers New Insight Into Crime

video of X-ray on website

X-Ray Gives Border Officers New Insight Into Crime

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03-07-08 at 7:11PM

An x-ray is letting inspectors see right through smugglers' tricks. Now, for the first time, we're seeing how it's giving border officers this added insight into crime, letting them make busts right on the spot.

55,000 cars come into the U.S. from Mexico daily. For Customs and Border Protection officers its impossible to catch all of the smuggling activity, but a new high tech machine certainly makes their job easier.

With a single pass, the Z backscatter truck scans a line of suspicious vehicles.

"If there is an anomaly, it's going to light up. It's going to be in a sense, highlighted,"

Quickly displaying an x-ray, the truck picks up drugs, alcohol and even people, finding what the smugglers try so hard to hide.

"They will come up with a new idea to hide something," CBP Officer Jerry Vales said.

Working for CBP for the last five years, Vales has seen it all.

"It's never a dull moment," he said. "To the normal eye it could look like a normal equipped part of the vehicle, but when you look at it through the x-ray view, it wont look that way," he said.

It's random which vehicles are scanned, but ever since CBP officers started using the Z backscatter, they say not only has it made their job faster, but they have also intercepted more illegal activity.

"Knowing the fact that I did catch a load of drugs, knowing he's going to jail and I stopped him from coming into our country, it's total gratification," Vales said.

San Ysidro is the country's biggest port, but the Z backscatter is also being used just down the road in Otay Mesa.

On a daily basis, they say they nab about a dozen illegal immigrants and about six drug-filled cars.

http://www.cbs8.com/features/crimefight ... id=120447#

"The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence." Article IV Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.

Everything they can do to stop the smuggling is very good news for the US. Maybe they will start using more of the Z backscatters.
If they catch enough smugglers maybe the word will get out that the US is finally doing something to help stop the smugglers.