Team 13: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Analysis Support: Tunnel Detection System

Abstract

Since 1990, more than 116 cross-border subterranean tunnels have been discovered along the continental US borders, the vast majority between US and Mexico. Tunnels present a low probability, high threat scenario to the United States and are a known means of illicit transportation of drugs, weapons, money and people across the US border. The perpetrators engaged in illicit trafficking are intelligent, tenacious, technologically innovative and they relentlessly seek to continue to expand their profitable enterprise. In today’s world, confronted with the realities of terrorism and terroristic objectives, one must also acknowledge that tunnels pose a looming threat to national security. Tunnels are also a persistent military threat. A 2007 operational needs statement (ONS) from US Central Command (CENTCOM) noted that detainees were attempting to tunnel as a means to escape from the internment facilities.