Drug smuggling

How Smugglers Attempt to Get Drugs and Other Contraband Over the Border

Mexican authorities said on Monday that they had discovered a homemade bazooka that appeared to be designed to launch packages over the border fence from Mexico into the United States.

This makeshift launcher, discovered in the state of Sonora across from Arizona, is the latest in innovative methods used to smuggle drugs and other contraband over the International Boundary Fence into the U.S.

While the bazooka method has been used to throw drugs over a fenced area of the border in the past, it is not common or particularly effective, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). A similar contraption was discovered on the California border in 2013.

"As you might guess, someone needs to be reasonably close to the fence to receive the package of drugs where agents patrol. Or come by later to look for it," CBP spokesperson Ralph DeSio said in a statement to ABC News.