Cartels Moving Drugs in Tanker Trucks Containing Industrial Hazardous Waste
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is hiring
contractors who can deploy hazardous waste contamination teams to two
sites in Texas, to extract drug packages buried in toxic waste,
according to Wired.
Cartels are moving drugs in tanker trucks containing various types of
industrial hazardous waste, CBP says. The agency acknowledged its
agents are not trained to safely extract the drugs and decontaminate
them for use as evidence.
The waste includes drilling fluids, oil and wastewater from gas and
oil wells. Wastewater from drilling wells may include benzene, which can
cause leukemia and bone marrow disease, the article notes. It also
includes calcium hydroxide powder, which can cause blindness if enough
of the substance gets into the eyes.
The agency wants experts for two checkpoints about 70 miles north of
the Texas-Mexico border. At the checkpoints, 18-wheel trucks are scanned
by drive-through X-ray machines. If the scans find anything that looks
like a drug shipment inside an industrial tanker truck, the contractors
will use vacuum trucks that suck out hazardous chemicals. Contractors
wearing protective suits and respirators will step inside the tanker and
remove the drugs.
The hazardous waste will be taken to a disposal or recycling facility that is allowed to accept the material.
Because of increased Border Patrol enforcement in Arizona, drug
cartels are increasingly looking to cross the border in remote parts of
south Texas, Wired states. Cartels have stolen and copied trucks owned
by energy companies in the area.
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