A Note To Law Enforcement: Expect the Uninspected!

A friend in law enforcement sent me an interesting little publication called the Central Valley California HIDTA* Quarterly Update. There was a chilling story about how a meth bust in Phoenix yielded something that looked like meth on the kitchen stove but was actually TATP--an unstable homemade explosive favored by terrorists and known colloquially as the "mother of satan".

But what got my attention was a story warning law enforcement everywhere that Mexican trucks on our highways may not ever have been inspected. Formerly they were restricted to making deliveries within 25 miles of the border; now they can go much further into California. (How far? Don't know.) Here's the warning to law enforcement, clipped from the bulletin, with the phone number redacted:

Here's the relevant text again, for your cutting-and-pasting and googling pleasure, emphasis mine:

California law enforcement officers will soon encounter Mexican trucks and commercial drivers throughout the state. Some of these trucks may not have been completely and thoroughly inspected at the USMexican border due to current in-place procedures. Law enforcement should be aware of this program and know what to expect when inspecting a Mexican truck and interviewing a Mexican commercial driver.

Well, basically, they should expect the uninspected! Could be a truckload of Zetas or an inbound arsenal. Could be bales of marijuana, tons of coke, or a packed modern-day Amistad of illegal immigrants.

Could be the next Ahmed Ressam. Could be the next Farida Goolam Ahmed, conducting an underground railroad for terrorists into the United States. Could be radiological, biological, or chemical.

You just don't know.

In some ways, this policy moots the entire border fence debate. If someone can hitch a ride on an uninspected--or minimally inspected--tractor-trailer into the country, why bother sneaking in through the desert or across the river--or across a fence?

More here. Note this quote:

The labor union has expressed concerns about the Transportation Department's ability to inspect trucks (all trucks will be inspected and all drivers interviewed, the Bush administration says).

Methinks the Administration is moving in a gray area here. There is a difference in a safety inspection for a truck--brake lights, horn, tires, etc., that you get periodically--and a customs inspection of the truck's cargo. So a truck that sails across the border without anyone looking inside can said to have been "inspected", if a mechanic once certified it roadworthy. I think any public comment about this issue ought to nail down which of these we're talking about.

*High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area