http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090825/ap_on_re_us/us_drug_war_trains
Interesting article. Any comments?
Just wait til the oil and highway lobby gets hold of this..."get rid of trains because trains allow for the smuggling of contraband into the US." Its the same story one gets when fear is spread that a passenger train may someday run on the tracks in town!
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
Imagine the logistics of trying to find and retrieve a shipment of drugs that some yay-who put on a train somewhere in Mexico, and then marked the car with graffitti! To do list:1) Figure out where the marked car went2) Figure out how to identify a car "marked with graffitti" in a yard of cars marked the car with graffitti.3) Casually stop by the yard and retrieve said drugs from secret hiding spot on car before someone else does4)Explain to the local Mafia Don why his shipment is late or gone missing.5) Make out last will & testament
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
The question that comes to my mind....WHAT IF...Said Railroad loses the car, who takes the hit?
A rock Island boxcar that sat on a spur track on President's Island until about 1999.
An L&N boxcar that was billed to a company in Az, and turned up still loaded,but bad ordered in NJ about two years later.
henry6 Just wait til the oil and highway lobby gets hold of this..."get rid of trains because trains allow for the smuggling of contraband into the US." Its the same story one gets when fear is spread that a passenger train may someday run on the tracks in town!
Of couse plenty of contraband crosses the borders in OTR trailers as well......
"I Often Dream of Trains"-From the Album of the Same Name by Robyn Hitchcock
Carne, you've got to learn that I am an old cynical and sarcastic SOB!
Murphy, what you have listed as #5 should be no later than #3.
Johnny
Eh....call me an optimist. I put at least as much thought into my list, as that journalist did on the story.
Welding secret compartments into boxcars to carry drugs?
LOL!!! Look at the caption under the photo......
RJ
"Something hidden, Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges, Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go." The Explorers - Rudyard Kipling
http://sweetwater-photography.com/
Murphy Siding Eh....call me an optimist. I put at least as much thought into my list, as that journalist did on the story. Welding secret compartments into boxcars to carry drugs?
I wonder--was the reporter fed a line or two and swallowed without chewing, or was the reporter speculating as to possibilities (not probabilties)?
As to RJ's comment about the caption under the picture in the news story, it may be that the caption writer, amazingly, remembers what the road was before it was swallowed up.
Bedtime
Seriously, though, consider that a package of cocaine or heroine isn't going to be all that large, and there are plenty of places to stick stuff.
I wonder how much help the smugglers are getting from the other side of the border. It's entirely possible that shipments could be routed to points well beyond the border if the smuggler is associated with the shipper and is privvy to such information. Now the receiving dealer doesn't have to know the graffiti - just the reporting marks on the car. And if they've enlisted help at the receiving industry, they've got all the time in the world to pull the stuff from its hiding place.
As for the caption - it's not the first time....
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
A few weeks ago there was a news story about employees at an ethanol plant finding a large package of marijuana hidden on a rail car. Still, that's probably better than what the elevator people at Denison, IA found being smuggled in a covered hopper about 7 or 8 years ago.
Jeff
Murphy Siding Welding secret compartments into boxcars to carry drugs?
Customs found a box welded on the hull of a cargo ship arriving in Miami a number of years ago, so welding compartments into boxcars sounds quite believable to me.
jeffhergert A few weeks ago there was a news story about employees at an ethanol plant finding a large package of marijuana hidden on a rail car. Still, that's probably better than what the elevator people at Denison, IA found being smuggled in a covered hopper about 7 or 8 years ago. Jeff
Dan
I live close to the border and the amount of drugs smuggled on rail cars is nothing compared to what comes across the border by back pack or road. Practically every day there is news in the local media about large drug seizures in the area. And it is estimated by law enforcement that for every pound caught, there are probably 1,000 pounds getting through.
I don't recall it being that far back, but the bodies of 7 or 8 people that were trying to enter the US in a UP boxcar from Mexico were found in the boxcar, parked in a siding at Denison, Iowa.
Smugglers will use any available resource to accomplish their task...
Train - Truck - Car - Body Cavity - Bra
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/08/26/Woman-accused-of-smuggling-cocaine-in-bra/UPI-86001251305422/
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Murphy Siding I don't recall it being that far back, but the bodies of 7 or 8 people that were trying to enter the US in a UP boxcar from Mexico were found in the boxcar, parked in a siding at Denison, Iowa.
Covered hopper. They took the car in a special train to Hull Avenue yard in Des Moines. To get the bodies out they cut the side of the car open.
There were some indictments but I've lost track as to the outcome.
Murphy Siding Imagine the logistics of trying to find and retrieve a shipment of drugs that some yay-who put on a train somewhere in Mexico, and then marked the car with graffitti! \
Imagine the logistics of trying to find and retrieve a shipment of drugs that some yay-who put on a train somewhere in Mexico, and then marked the car with graffitti! \
See now? RIGHT HERE IS A BLATANT EXAMPLEof the hippocracy in the moderation of these forums.
If 'hobo" threads are veboten because "hobo'ing is trespassing, and trespassing is a crime" then why shouldn't this thread send you all off on a snit? Afterall, in order for the smugglers to place and retrieve the packages DO THEY NOT HAVE TO TRESPASS in order to do their "thing"? and isn't that traspassing at least as illegal as hoboing? Not to mention the fact that the cargo itself IS A FELONY and the smugglers are making the RR into aN ACCOMPLICE in the commission of a felony, interstate distribution.
Seems pretty cut and dried to me, assuming the arguments we've been fed up to now are legit.
Convicted One Murphy Siding Imagine the logistics of trying to find and retrieve a shipment of drugs that some yay-who put on a train somewhere in Mexico, and then marked the car with graffitti! \ See now? RIGHT HERE IS A BLATANT EXAMPLEof the hippocracy in the moderation of these forums. If 'hobo" threads are veboten because "hobo'ing is trespassing, and trespassing is a crime" then why shouldn't this thread send you all off on a snit? Afterall, in order for the smugglers to place and retrieve the packages DO THEY NOT HAVE TO TRESPASS in order to do their "thing"? and isn't that traspassing at least as illegal as hoboing? Not to mention the fact that the cargo itself IS A FELONY and the smugglers are making the RR into aN ACCOMPLICE in the commission of a felony, interstate distribution. Seems pretty cut and dried to me, assuming the arguments we've been fed up to now are legit.
ASeems to me that a Union Pacific conductor was working with the smugglers and arranged the car to be available to move those poor souls north, trouble was that car sat in Oklahoma for almost 10 before it was ent to be loaded in Dennison. I was the conductor that spotted that train at the ADM elevator. The car as of a year ago was still at Hull Ave yard sitting on blocks the trucks and couplers removed Larry P.S. As Jeff indicated the conductor in Texas was charged but have learned nothing more,
I think the difference is that Trains is afraid that any discussions about box car tourists in some way may glorify and encourage that lifestyle. While I don't encourage that activity either, I would agree that there is some historical relevance that can't be discussed. Years ago, some travelling by side door pullman were railroaders travelling between jobs, the boomers.
I doubt that discussing a news item about drug (or human) smuggling is going to make someone reading this think that would be something to try.
Just in case, anyone reading about anything on these forums, don't try it at home.
PS Larry, I didn't know you were the one that spotted the mtys in Dension.
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