Marijuana Cannon: Border Officials Seize Pot-Launching Cannon Used to Fire Drugs into the United States

Apparently drug smugglers are having to become rather creative. In the Mexican border city of Mexicali a makeshift marijuana cannon was confiscated by authorities last week. Police told Televisa that they believe the devise was used to fire marijuana packets over the border fence in California.

The air-powered cannon was made up of plastic pipe, a metal tank, and an old car engine. According to the police it was capable of firing marijuana packets weighing as much as 30 pounds. According to The Guardian, US officers noticed a large number of drug packets being fired across their side of the border, which brings me to the question...how many drug packets do they usually find on their side of the border?

This isn't the first time a device like this was used to fire marijuana over the border. Similar cannons have been discovered in Mexico over the years. Is this what the war on drugs has become?

I guess US officials must be doing a good job if people are being relegated to shooting marijuana over the border using cannons. It seems like an almost ridiculous proposition, albeit creative and gutsy. What is even more fascinating is that this isn't the first time this contraption has been attempted. If it's been done before, people must of had some success using it.

In December of last year a similar cannon was used to shoot marijuana into Arizona. According to this report over $42,000 worth of marijuana, consisting of 30 cans, was shot into Yuma, Arizona using a cannon. The marijuana weighed around 85 pounds and the cans were fired from about 500 feet away using a pneumatic-powered cannon. There also was a carbon-dioxide tank found nearby.

Pictures of the marijuana cannon can be found on The Guardian's website. The compressed air gun was mounted on a truck.