Robot helps Border Patrol fight crime

Posted: Oct 31, 2008 06:43 PM PDT


In the border town of Nogales, drug dealers and illegal immigrants have been using tunnels for years to cross into the U.S. But now the border patrol has a new tool to fight back.

Tunnel after tunnel being discovered in the border town of Nogales this year. Agents say they're used to smuggle humans and drugs into the U.S. Built by criminals they're dark, dangerous, and deadly.

"There's been tunnels and notifications of them where they have a system where if at any time they were set up to flood. By a push of a button or a flip of a switch, boom that tunnel would flood out and who's ever in there, you're not getting out," says Agent Michael Scioli.

Sometimes booby trapped and most of the time unstable these drug tunnels are just too dangerous for agents to go into so they send in a robot to check things out.

"If we send the robot in first, we know what's going on, that way we know if there's someone in there, with a weapon perhaps, we'll know what we're getting into before we get into it," says Scioli


The robot is equipped with a camera and lights, it can squeeze into tight spaces, and maneuver over rough terrain. It's biggest advantage? keeping agents safe. An important weapon the border patrol is using to fight illegal trafficking on the border.

"What this means is you build a fence, you better the technology. They're going to find another way to get over or under and this is one of the angles they do," says Scioli.

http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=9276238