The Arizona Border Patrol presented three robots that will be employed to identify tunnels used by criminal groups to smuggle drugs across the border and to detect and prevent illegal immigration.
The use of new technology on the border between Mexico and the US has increased in recent years, and the use of robots in monitoring the border will serve to reinforce one of the most guarded borders in the world.
According to the Daily Mail, the Arizona Border Patrol organized a press conference where it provided further details on the new equipment to be deployed to the border. The new equipment has cameras that allow border patrol officers to investigate tunnels remotely, as well as the drainage systems usually used by drug traffickers to smuggle drugs, people and weapons.
"Any time we can use a robot instead of a person, that's a win for us. The robot can go where an officer can't due to contaminated water, fumes or size," said Kevin Hecht, the supervising agent for the Nogales, Arizona station, according to Univisión.
The same source reported that the three robots tested in Nogales yesterday performed correctly, and two of them will stay in Tucson and the other will be send to San Diego, where some of the most sophisticated narco tunnels were found last year.
The Daily Mail highlighted that the Arizona Border Patrol paid a total of $109,000 for the robots. The money came from a fund of seized money from criminal cases which included seized drug shipments in recent years.
In the border area, the present of narco tunnels are becoming more common and more sophisticated, and might include lights, ventilation and sometimes even rails to transport big amounts of drugs and weapons.
The robots presented by the Border Patrol will help agents watch high-risk areas from a safe distance.
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