The Mexican military seized 45 pounds of marijuana, a sports
utility vehicle and a metal-framed catapult just south of the Arizona border
near the small town of Naco last Friday, following a tip-off from the US Border
Patrol.
Surveillance video taken by National Guard troops deployed
to support the Border Patrol caught a group of men apparently attempting to
pull down a metal beam and load or test the catapult, which was powered by
powerful elastic and mounted on a trailer close to the metal border fence.
“It looks like a medieval catapult that was used back in the
day,” Tucson sector Border Patrol spokesman David Jimarez told Reuters.
Arizona straddles a furiously trafficked corridor for human
and drug smugglers from Mexico.
The US Border Patrol seize hundreds of tons of marijuana and
other drugs each year, smuggled over or under the line using a variety of
means, including trucks, clandestine tunnels, horseback and even micro-light
aircraft — although the catapult was new, Jimarez said.
“I have not seen anything like that in my time before as a
Border Patrol agent ... although we are trained to handle any kind of a threat
that comes over that border,” he added.
