[WAPO via MSN] LAREDO, Tex. — At the busiest commercial border crossing in North America, trucks stream into the United States at a rate of 500 per hour during peak times. Drug traffickers play the percentages.
Fewer than 5 percent of the vehicles are typically screened by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with the powerful high-energy scanners that can peer deep inside cargo loads to detect "anomalies" — odd patterns or suspicious densities that could be illegal drugs. The inspections require drivers to leave their vehicles and endure delays.
With fatal drug overdose deaths in the United States soaring to record levels, Congress has directed CBP to come up with a plan to scan 100 percent of arriving vehicles. Here and across the U.S. southern border, the agency is preparing to roll out new "nonintrusive" inspection systems to screen significantly more trucks.
These "multi-energy portals" will zap the cargo areas with high-energy waves, but use safer low-energy screening for the cab, allowing the drivers to remain in their vehicles and clear inspection faster, the agency says. |