As US land borders tighten, drug smugglers fly

By ELLIOT SPAGAT and AMANDA LEE MYERS Associated Press

CALEXICO, Calif. (AP) - A near-disastrous collision this month between a military helicopter training over the Southern California desert and an ultralight airplane buzzing toward Mexico illustrated how drug smugglers are using the low-flying aircraft to circumvent new fences along the U.S. border.

And in a new twist, the planes rarely touch the ground. Pilots simply pull levers that drop aluminum bins filled with about 200 pounds of marijuana for drivers who are waiting on the ground with blinking lights or glow-sticks. Within a few minutes, the pilots are back in Mexico.

The Customs and Border Protection agency counted 228 incursions by ultralights along the Mexican border in fiscal 2010, up from 118 a year earlier, when it began keeping track. There have been 71 since the start of fiscal 2011 on Oct 1.