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A secret underground tunnel between Mexico and Arizona has been discovered, an example of the degree to which the cartels will go to smuggle drugs and humans into the U.S.

Last month, the unfinished tunnel near the border wall in Yuma was detected by drones during a joint investigation between U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the Sonora State Police with authorities describing it as a “narco tunnel,” according to Phoenix CBS affiliate KTVK which reports that the tunnel which was in its “early stages” could “presumably have been used to smuggle drugs or people under the border wall and into the U.S.”

Heritage Foundation visiting fellow Joseph Humire joined Sunday’s edition of “Fox & Friends Weekend” where he discussed the shocking discovery in the context of the incoming Trump administration’s efforts to impose control at the southern border after four years of the Biden administration’s wanton disregard for the safety of Americans.

(Video Credit: Fox News)

“We’ve had good cooperation with Mexican authorities on tactical issues,” Humire explained. “What happens is when you want to get to strategic issues or you want to get to very high level against the Mexican cartels that collaboration tends to break down, particularly under most recent government, but there’s a new government in Mexico there’s a new president of the United States so I’m hoping that cooperation could enhance.”

“As far as the tunnels, I mean we have this refrain in the military, we say amateurs talk strategy while professionals talk logistics and what you see on the border is some of the most advanced logistical networks that the cartels build because they’re powered by massive amounts of money,” he continued. “I mean you have the global drug industry that’s $360 billion, the human trafficking industry that’s $240 billion dollars, I mean the amount of money that’s being poured unto these elicit enterprises is giving them all the best technologies to go around law enforcement.”

“So this is going to be a major challenge I think for both the Mexican government and new Trump Administration they need to focus on this logistics because it’s the logistics that powers it just like it does in a war, the supply lines power the militaries and this case, the logistics power the cartels allows them to do all of the stuff that they do.”

Co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy noted that according to new stats, “violent drug cartels are now Mexico’s fifth largest employer” and that the porous border and the “enrichment and empowering” of the cartels risked turning Mexico into a “narco-state,” asking Humire for his opinion on whether this is “where we’re at right now.”

“That’s 100 percent of the direction that Mexico’s going,” he responded. “This is a tremendous concern, we cannot afford for Mexico to become a Venezuela. It’s our neighbor, it’s our trade partner and we share a very long border. And what happens and this is the biggest concern, especially on these border towns is as you know Rachel, like — enterprise doesn’t stop because you stop governing.”

“So basically at any given moment society has two enterprises right?” Humire continued. “A free enterprise that we’re all involved in and an illegal and illicit enterprise, and when the illicit enterprise, the incentives are driven more towards predation than production, the illicit enterprise takes over the free enterprise… one day you’re a truck driver for a multinational, the next day you’re a truck driver for a cartel, and that’s what’s happening on these border towns.”

“The incentives are aligning so that illicit enterprise is dominating the free enterprise,” he explained. “Why is that? Because the Mexican government, the Mexican economy has not been boosted up. It’s been stifled down,” adding that was the problem with the policies of Mexico’s previous president, an avowed socialist whose nationalizing of industries was “pushing more and more of the incentives towards the cartels” who were “taking over these towns.”

“In many towns cartel is the police for that town,” Campos-Duffy added. “They are the security for that town and, obviously, this corrupts politicians as well. Go if I need to operate in this area, I’ve got to coordinate with the cartels. This is a very dangerous situation. They are our closest, most important neighbor, so this is a big task for the Trump administration moving forward.”

Chris Donaldson
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