mexican cartels do their bit to turn cannons into peaceful machines

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**Frazzled**

Filed under beating your swords into plowshares:

http://kxan.com/2016/09/20/mexican-police-van-with-cannon-used-to-shoot-drugs-to-us/

Mexican police: Van with cannon used to shoot drugs to US
Associated Press Published: September 20, 2016, 6:06 pm

In this Sept. 17, 2016 photo released by Mexico Federal Police, an officer stands next to a van outfitted with a 10-foot (3-meter) air cannon in Agua Prieta, Mexico, along the border with Douglas, Arizona. According to federal police, it was used to shoot projectiles into the U.S. and the van was reported stolen from the city of Hermosillo in the Mexican state of Sonora over the summer. a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman said that the most common common use for this sort of device is lobbying marijuana packages over the border fence. (AP Photo/Policia Federal Preventiva)

DOUGLAS, Ariz. (AP) – Drug smugglers employ very creative methods to get their loads across the U.S.-Mexico border.

But it’s not every day they use a van outfitted with a 10-foot (3-meter) air cannon to shoot projectiles into the United States.

Mexican federal police said in a statement last week they found such van parked on a street in Agua Prieta, Mexico, along the border with Douglas, Arizona.

It was reported stolen from the city of Hermosillo in the Mexican state of Sonora over the summer.

Images provided by the Mexican police show the black van with hole cut in its roof with a cannon in the back of the van that could fire projectiles. Authorities also said they found an air compressor apparently used to launch packages.

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Vicente Paco said Tuesday that agents regularly see numerous methods used by smugglers to send contraband over the border fence.

The most common is lobbying softball-sized marijuana packages over the fence and into the U.S., often in residential backyards, Paco said in statement. Smugglers pay someone on the U.S. side to retrieve the packages, which are then distributed around the country.

Paco said high-pressure air cannons can launch heavier marijuana packages weighing 60 pounds. The Border Patrol has also seen the use of trebuchets, a catapult-type launcher that can be crafted from wood.

Smugglers have even used heavy equipment and ladders to hoist trucks loaded with marijuana over the border fence, which in parts of Arizona can go as high as 26 feet (7.9 meters).

Video captured in March by a Mexican news station showed two young men who were carrying large loads of what appeared to be marijuana scaling a border fence from Nogales, Mexico, into Nogales, Arizona.

Locals call these types of smugglers “Mexican spidermen” for their ability to rapidly climb and rappel down the fence.

Paco says the use of cannons and other major devices is rare and that authorities spot them only once every couple of years.

**Ouze**

I was reading this earlier, and I was wondering - why not railway cannon-type device inside a semi? The range on those was crazy good right?

On the one hand, drugs are bad, of course, of course. On the other hand, from an engineering perspective, this is pretty awesome.

**Frazzled**

Ouze wrote:
I was reading this earlier, and I was wondering - why not railway cannon-type device inside a semi? The range on those was crazy good right?

To expensive. They can just dig a tunnel or run it through trucks.

**whembly**

Frazzled wrote:
Ouze wrote:
I was reading this earlier, and I was wondering - why not railway cannon-type device inside a semi? The range on those was crazy good right?

To expensive. They can just dig a tunnel or run it through trucks.

Might be worth it... those suckers have an anticipated 250 mile range. Granted that's the size of a pellet, but a small box?

Good luck finding that!

**Frazzled**

whembly wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Ouze wrote:
I was reading this earlier, and I was wondering - why not railway cannon-type device inside a semi? The range on those was crazy good right?

To expensive. They can just dig a tunnel or run it through trucks.

Might be worth it... those suckers have an anticipated 250 mile range. Granted that's the size of a pellet, but a small box?

Good luck finding that!

But...they can just drive a truck across the border.

**Mozzyfuzzy**

Where's the fun in regular drug smuggling though Frazzled?

**Ouze**

Frazzled wrote:
whembly wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Ouze wrote:
I was reading this earlier, and I was wondering - why not railway cannon-type device inside a semi? The range on those was crazy good right?

To expensive. They can just dig a tunnel or run it through trucks.

Might be worth it... those suckers have an anticipated 250 mile range. Granted that's the size of a pellet, but a small box?

Good luck finding that!

But...they can just drive a truck across the border.

This is increasingly reminding me of Austin Powers.

**Frazzled**

Mozzyfuzzy wrote:
Where's the fun in regular drug smuggling though Frazzled?

This is a fair point. On the positive they do have submarines now, so thats pretty cool.

I want to see a line of old school mangonels and trebuchets firing away. They could say its part of a renaissance fair demonstration.

Way better than the modern version of just flying drones over (how come they don't just fly drones over?)

**Ouze**

Frazzled wrote:
Way better than the modern version of just flying drones over (how come they don't just fly drones over?)

They do with pills over prisons.

Over the border though, there are some conceptual problems. A consumer drone can carry about a pound, but they're not really designed to carry weight and it would severely impact their flight time, and hence range. Additionally a pound of weed is very bulky, again impacting flight time and range.

However, there is no reason you can't just build a custom drone that can do heavy lifting. All of the hardware is off the shelf and open source. You'd be limited to about 3 miles of range though but I suspect that would be enough.

The other consideration is risking a, in the case of a lifter, $5,000 drone to carry a $3,500 bundle of weed - assuming a pound. DJI makes at least one drone that can carry 3 pounds though. That might work.

**Wyrmalla**

Should the title of this thread be "peace pipes"?

**kronk**

Ouze wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
whembly wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Ouze wrote:
I was reading this earlier, and I was wondering - why not railway cannon-type device inside a semi? The range on those was crazy good right?

To expensive. They can just dig a tunnel or run it through trucks.

Might be worth it... those suckers have an anticipated 250 mile range. Granted that's the size of a pellet, but a small box?

Good luck finding that!

But...they can just drive a truck across the border.

This is increasingly reminding me of Austin Powers.

Moley, moley, moley...

Speaking of mole-ies, I would think that, as mentioned above, building a tunnel you could cart the drugs across would be more efficient.

**Mozzyfuzzy**

What about hot air balloons?

Does anybody monitor where you dump" sandbags"?

Or do people get iffy if you're floating around their border?

**jhe90**

semi truck with a railway gun style rear mount.

Even if short barreled it can hide in a trailer and fire out a small hole in roof.

Lorry cannons!

**kronk**

Mozzyfuzzy wrote:
What about hot air balloons?

Does anybody monitor where you dump" sandbags"?

Or do people get iffy if you're floating around their border?

People get VERY iffy when you're flying a balloon across the border. I'm not even sure if the FAA allows hot air balloon transits across either the Mexico or Canadian border. You never know when someone might try to smuggle in maple syrup without paying their due taxes!

**SagesStone**

So this cannon is lobbying to put marijuana into the US? Would be easier to just, you know, maybe use it to somehow move these packages there instead of trying to take the political route like that.

**A Town Called Malus**

kronk wrote:
Ouze wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
whembly wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Ouze wrote:
I was reading this earlier, and I was wondering - why not railway cannon-type device inside a semi? The range on those was crazy good right?

To expensive. They can just dig a tunnel or run it through trucks.

Might be worth it... those suckers have an anticipated 250 mile range. Granted that's the size of a pellet, but a small box?

Good luck finding that!

But...they can just drive a truck across the border.

This is increasingly reminding me of Austin Powers.

Moley, moley, moley...

Speaking of mole-ies, I would think that, as mentioned above, building a tunnel you could cart the drugs across would be more efficient.

I think you mean three tunnels, complete with railcart system, called Tom, Dick and Harry.

**MrMoustaffa**

n0t_u wrote:
So this cannon is lobbying to put marijuana into the US? Would be easier to just, you know, maybe use it to somehow move these packages there instead of trying to take the political route like that.

Thank goodness someone else noticed, I was starting to think I was seeing things

**Orlanth**

The DEA built a high tech wall at huge expense along the Arizona desert, with electrified ridge and computerised monitoring.

The cartels circumvented the advanced defences by lobbing drugs over the border, with mangonels.

**whembly**

Orlanth wrote:
The DEA built a high tech wall at huge expense along the Arizona desert, with electrified ridge and computerised monitoring.

The cartels circumvented the advanced defences by lobbing drugs over the border, with mangonels.

Nah... the emplaced Phalanx will shoot down those drug bags.

Look! It's raining weed!

**Orlanth**

Nah, release pigeons with tin foil attached to their legs. Phalanx system freaks out, then runs out of ammo. Then lob over the drugs.

Extra splendid good, senor.

**Frazzled**

Orlanth wrote:
Nah, release pigeons with tin foil attached to their legs. Phalanx system freaks out, then runs out of ammo. Then lob over the drugs.

Extra splendid good, senor.

A battery of 155s should do the trick.

**Rainbow Dash**

n0t_u wrote:
So this cannon is lobbying to put marijuana into the US? Would be easier to just, you know, maybe use it to somehow move these packages there instead of trying to take the political route like that.

They're getting ready for the wall