Drug smuggling

Traffickers at El Chapo trial say they typically smuggled drugs through legal checkpoints along border

Former members of crime lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman’s cartel testified during his trial that drug traffickers usually smuggled drugs through legal checkpoints along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The testimony is interesting in the context of the shutdown fight in Washington over President Trump's demands for a border wall.

Trump has argued the wall is necessary to stop illegal immigrants and drugs from crossing the border. Democrats have repeatedly pointed to reports indicating that most illegal drugs entering the United States from Mexico come through legal checkpoints.

Witnesses revealed in the 10 weeks of testimony at Guzman’s trial that smugglers resorted to using tunnels and sea routes, among other innovative measures, as a means to smuggle drugs from Mexico into the United States, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

But they also testified about smuggling drugs into the U.S. by hiding the drugs in shipments that crossed at normal checkpoints.

Some testified that one of El Chapo's earliest methods of smuggling drugs into the country was by using passenger cars with hidden compartments in their chassis.