Our Good Friends?

Source: cbs2.com

2 Mexican customs inspectors arrested in cross-border tunnel dig

SAN DIEGO (AP) Mexican federal police arrested two customs officials and three others on charges of digging a secret tunnel that was presumably to be used for funneling drugs to the United States, authorities said Wednesday.

The tunnel, which stretched about 25 yards on land owned by the Mexican customs authority, did not cross the U.S.-Mexico border. It was about 100 yards from the San Ysidro border crossing, which connects Tijuana and San Diego.

Federal police captured a customs inspector, identified as Ruben Contreras, 32, and three other men Tuesday morning ``in flagrante'' as they were working on the tunnel, said Luis Cabrera, Mexico's consul general in San Diego.

One of the three men, Carlos Lopez, 27, oversaw the construction, while the two other men were paid $20 a night to dig, according to Mexican Department of Public Safety.

A customs supervisor, Jesus Roberto Giron Rodriguez, was later arrested on suspicion of involvement in the plot, Cabrera said.

Contreras allegedly told authorities that Giron directed him to stand watch at the tunnel's mouth while the other men dug overnight.

Authorities have discovered about 40 secret tunnels on the U.S.-Mexico border since they began keeping track after Sept. 11, 2001, the vast majority in and around San Diego and Nogales, Ariz.

When president Bush talks about "our good friend and neighbor Mexico," is this part of that deal?

H/T The Stein Report

Technorati Tags: the border, drug smuggling, Mexico, president Bush,