Former DEA agent suggests that federal authorities are probably investigating attempts to conceal illegal activities in order to dismantle Mexican drug cartels operating along the border

Mexican drug cartels have outfitted dozens of tunnels with rail and cart systems to whisk drugs beneath the U.S. border, posing a major challenge for the Trump administration as it works to curb the flow of illegal narcotics into the country.

The U.S. Drug and Enforcement Agency (DEA) reports that most illicit drugs in the U.S. are smuggled via vehicles at southern border entry points, but some enter through cross-border tunnels and subterranean passageways.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to stop the flow of illegal drugs in the U.S., introducing a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an estimated 107,941 people in the U.S. died from a drug-involved overdose in 2022.

Former DEA Senior Special Agent Michael Brown, who is the global director of counter-narcotics technology at Rigaku Analytical Devices, told Fox News Digital that the agency blows up the drug trafficking tunnels to make them impassable.

He noted that tunnels are not simple underground holes but rather complicated “underground cities” complete with air ducts, office space, weapon stashes and railway tracks. 

Federal agents seized 4,400 pounds of illicit drugs from one tunnel’s exit in the U.S., ICE said. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Brown said he doesn’t believe the U.S. would go to the same length as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did when destroying the tunnels.

Following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, the IDF set its sights on dismantling the terrorist group’s web of tunnels. In one instance, the IDF said they pumped water into the tunnels and flooded them.

“The U.S. would never blow up a school under any circumstances,” he said. “But if we had a 9/11 every day like Israel, I think American attitudes would change.”

A binational operation dismantles a human trafficking tunnel in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on Jan. 10, 2025. (Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital has reached out to the DEA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and HSI for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.