Found: A Drug Catapult at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Drugs are important to different kinds of people. For the police, they can be an opportunity to make an arrest. For dealers, they are an opportunity to get paid. For users, they are an opportunity to … well, you get the idea. 

Many drugs are also illegal of course, including, in many places, the popular drug marijuana. The demand for that drug, though, also creates a massive market, frequently forcing dealers to resort to creative measures to get their product into the hands of users. 

And so it happened last Friday that agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, patrolling near Douglas, Arizona, came upon a group of people in the desert, who, after spotting the agents, quickly fled. Upon closer inspection, the agents discovered the device you see above: a catapult, attached to the south side of a U.S.-Mexico border fence. Nearby, the agents also found 47 pounds worth of marijuana.

The catapult as a drug delivery device has been tried before, the primary benefit—as opposed to say, simply tossing the drugs over the fence—apparently being that a catapult would allow for more drugs to be flung over the wall.

According to C.B.P., Mexican authorities took and dismantled the catapult, while American authorities kept the marijuana, each seizing the items that were found on their side of the fence. Despite its high-flying adventure, the authorities did not say whether the marijuana would be used to get anyone high.