Tunnel Builders Caught on US--Canadian Border

On Thursday, US and Canadian enforcement agencies closed a 360-foot tunnel going across the Canadian border north of Seattle, and charged its builders with conspiracy to import and distribute marijuana. According to the reports, the Canadian border guards noticed large amounts of building materials going into a quonset hut on the Canadian side of the border, and lots of dirt coming out, but they couldn't figure out what was being built, so they tipped off investigators who have now arrested five people in connection with the scheme.

"They were smart enough to build a sophisticated tunnel," U.S. Attorney John McKay said in this border town about 90 miles north of Seattle. "They weren't smart enough to not get caught."

What I want to know is, why bother to build a tunnel at all? This is the same border that Gregory Depres crossed carrying "a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood." And, if you recall, Mr. Depres looks like Pee-Wee Herman on crack. Yet he got across the border.

And if you don't feel like taking your chances with the pot hidden in your car or truck, you can always just walk it across the border at one of the many places the border is relatively unguarded. "Dozens of crossings are marked by orange cones and a "Closed" sign late at night. Travelers are expected to go the nearest 24-hour station. They used to be unwatched; today, they are monitored by border agents."

Monitored--not staffed. Or you could just jump the border in one of the areas where "the international boundary is "a ditch so puny a person could leap it."

What were they thinking, wasting their time building a tunnel?