Underworld: How the Sinaloa Drug Cartel Digs Its Tunnels | Hacker News Reader

Underworld: How the Sinaloa Drug Cartel Digs Its Tunnels

newyorker.com

62 pointsbalbaugh14 comments

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

> GPS signals don't work underground do they?

They probably wouldn't. But you also don't necessarily need GPS to do this. Have someone survey it topside, use that data and a compass underground.

Laser measurement systems. e.g. http://ptd.leica-geosystems.com/en/Total-Stations-TPS_4207.h...

GPS does not work underground, you can for some impressive distance get away with a long cable and an external antenna, but there are also GPS repeaters available.

Survey equipment. RTK GPS for position reference and heading on the surface, and lasers. Lots of lasers.

see e.g. http://www.leica-geosystems.us/en/Tunnel-surveys_1693.htm

If you know the exact direction at the opening and, the tunnel is in a straight line a laser pointer should work fine. Just keep making sure it hits where you are digging. Reading the entire story it sounds like that is all they were doing.

Sinaloa on the frontpage of HN...

As foretold in The Prophecy?

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