American Notes THE BORDER

Law-enforcement officers often speak of a narcotics pipeline across the American border, but little did they know how much truth there was in the metaphor. Last week astonished U.S. Customs agents unearthed an elaborate tunnel that began in the Mexican town of Agua Prieta and emerged 200 ft. away in Douglas, Ariz. Five ft. high and 4 ft. wide, the subterranean pathway had electric lighting, water pumps and storage compartments for drug caches. "It was just an exceptionally professionally engineered tunnel," said a Customs official. Agents first began to suspect the tunnel's existence last February, when a drug shipment they were tracking seemed to mysteriously disappear. Two weeks ago, they seized 2,258 lbs. of cocaine, valued at more than $100 million, that had come through the Arizona pipeline.