
Underworld: How the Sinaloa Drug Cartel Digs Its Tunnels - balbaugh
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/03/underworld-monte-reel
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Labyrinth
Not to plug but here is Vice News coverage of the el chapo escape along with a
more detailed view of how they construct the tunnels.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh3RHV5G1Fc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh3RHV5G1Fc)

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ChuckMcM
Thanks for that, it was interesting their coverage of the 'hoax' aspect of
this escape (not that the escape was a hoax but that the events leading up to
it were enabled by support from inside the Mexican government and prisons
system.) I also hadn't realized that there hasn't been an independent
confirmation of the full length of the tunnel. I would have thought that would
be the first thing some news agency would do.

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stcredzero
To quote an old adage: "...interprets it as damage and routes around it."

This seems to apply more to black market trade than the modern internet.
Information can't be stopped permanently, but the usage of various services on
the internet can be made less convenient and curtailed, even by 2nd and 3rd
rate governments, if only for awhile. Meanwhile, the most powerful state on
Earth can't stop the inflow of illicit drugs.

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Retric
The number of tunnels seem excessive, I don't know the drug numbers but let's
use people.

A tunnel large enough to walk though could send 10 people a minute without
problem. While 24/7 would be near impossible to achieve, it’s 600 people an
hour, 14,400 people a day, and up to 5,256,000 people per year.

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kardos
You need to build tunnels at least at the rate that they get discovered. Also
if there's excessive traffic at one tunnel, it's more likely that it'll get
found. A distributed network of tunnels is much better for business.

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Retric
Sure, I am probably also underestimating how many drugs get sent past the
border. But, the point still stands you can send a lot of stuff down a tunnel
where loading and unloading quickly become the largest issue.

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jqm
I was hoping for an explanation of how they are able to pinpoint exactly which
direction to dig and come up. I mean.. coming up into a 2 foot square from 35
feet underground from a mile away isn't something you guess at. GPS signals
don't work underground do they?

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willyt
Laser measurement systems. e.g. [http://ptd.leica-geosystems.com/en/Total-
Stations-TPS_4207.h...](http://ptd.leica-geosystems.com/en/Total-Stations-
TPS_4207.htm)

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sogen
Sinaloa on the frontpage of HN...

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mcphage
As foretold in The Prophecy?

