Amid heroin epidemic, a focus on stopping drugs at border
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - A sea of vehicles enters San Diego every day from Mexico. Any one of them could be carrying drugs.
Sidney Aki, port director for San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports, tried to describe the challenge.
"Our job here is to find that needle in the haystack," Aki said.
The State Department estimates 92,000 pounds of heroin were produced in Mexico in 2014, most of it headed for the United States. Yet according to the Drug Enforcement Agency only 11,000 pounds were seized across the country.
Aki said smugglers get more sophisticated every day.
"We've seen narcotics in transmissions, we've seen rear quarter panels, front quarter panels, dash boards," Aki said.
During a recent CBS News visit, inspectors found 22 bags of cocaine and meth in a spare tire at one crossing. At another crossing, they found nine pounds of heroin hidden in a motorcycle and a suitcase.
Officers question each traveler but they do not search every vehicle. Instead they rely on instinct, density readers, and x-ray machines to find drugs.
In between the ports, just two fences separate Mexico and the U.S., where agents face a different challenge.
Agent James Nielsen said in the past 15 years they've discovered 59 sophisticated smuggling tunnels from Tijuana.
More heroin is seized on the San Diego border than anywhere in the country. But with the heroin epidemic hitting new highs every year, there's a long way to go.