Thread: Smugglers get creative and use shuttle vans

More Border Patrol agents and better technology are forcing drug smugglers to get more creative when they bring the illegal contraband into the country. But Border Patrol is seeing a new trend: shuttle vans.

It's a busy day at the 1-19 checkpoint. Cars roll through as they head straight north to Tucson.

Among the tourists and visitors from down south, shuttle vans ferry people to Tucson and beyond.

Ricardo Felix is driving one of those shuttles. Border Patrol pulled over his van and found one of the passengers had meth hidden on him.

"The guy came from Nogales to here," he says.

Smugglers hide drugs in stacks of plywood. In the panels of cars, even a spare tire. But now smugglers are focusing their efforts on shuttle vans. One tactic they are using is by putting a piece of anonymous luggage on the van. If the van gets stopped, everyone on the van claims it is not theirs.

Border Patrol Agent Mike Scioli remembered one instance he remembered after a K-9 smelled drugs.

"They asked each individual occupant in the van 'is this your luggage, is this your luggage' and no one claimed one bag. They open it up and there's 20 lbs of marijuana in a bundle."

When they find the drugs sometimes it's tough to make an arrest if no one claims it.

"It's a business vehicle. So if we don't have any claim to it? At least we're seizing the drugs at least were stopping it form getting into the community. But next time they'll know not to bring it up," he says.

Technology and more Border Patrol agents are making a dent. Shuttle drivers like Ricardo say there's not much they can because they don't check passengers before they get on board.

But border patrol is catching them at this checkpoint, "Everyday they check it out for drugs," he says.

http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=10080892

Claim Tickets even on a Shuttle Bus

I guarantee if you arrest everyone and tell them how much time they will for smuggling 20 lbs of weed, fingers will start pointing. Cops use this tactic all the time.