Dairy Mart Road, Part 5

This secondary fence was placed here because drug smugglers were using heavy trucks to crash the older barriers and enter the United States with loads of cocaine. This second fence has been designed to stop any vehicle weighing up to about 40,000 pounds and traveling at even 30 miles per hour. The terrain south of this barrier is such that speeds of even 15 miles per hour are excessive.

Much of this second fence system is planted many feet into the ground so that tunneling beneath it is far more difficult. That is not to say tunnels are not popular. An average of about five tunnels are discovered in this area every year.

One recent tunnel was connected to an existing storm drain on the U.S. side of the border. Huge plastic wrapped bricks of cocaine were then handed out the curb-side storm drain inlet to a waiting van. One smuggler’s arm would stick out of the storm drain and hand the block of cocaine to another arm sticking out of the bottom of the van. These entrepreneurs just draped a dirty bed sheet along the bottom of the van so that no one would see them at work.

Other tunnels have included narrow gauge railways (with steel tracks) and lighting, and even high volume fans to blow in fresh air. Some of these special tunnels have been even a quarter mile long.

Some of the tunnels built over the last few years were wide enough to bring a four megaton nuclear warhead into America. Since these special tunnels cost millions of dollars to build, there is no lack of money, interest or intent here, only in the selection of the product to be imported.

For nearly a century there were horse rental agencies here in the area. They rented not just to movie stars but even to honeymooners so they could ride along the beach. To save the Tijuana River Estuary and park from Ethereal Damage, the San Diego County Parks Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other local agencies heroically spent a full twenty years forcing these people out of business. They succeeded.

As the San Diego County Parks Department says in their own brochures:

Parks enhance property values, contribute to healthy and productive workforces, and help attract and retain businesses. San Diego County Parks and Recreation Department.County Parks and Recreation Department.

Of course, there is a dark side to the area. How many parks have their own jail .... larger than that for Albany, New York?