Military checkpoint with Gamma-Ray non-intrusive facilities at Querobabi, Sonora.

The Mexican Ministry of Defense is asking for a US $150 million budget to build 13 “Counter-narcotics Strategic Checkpoints”.

The Army (project number 10071170002) plans to install 13 company-sized permanent checkpoints with non-intrusive X-Ray and Gamma-Ray inspection facilities.

Each checkpoint will have 5 inspection lanes for small vehicles and another 5 for larger ones, such as cargo trucks or buses. According to the Army it will take no more than 5 minutes to effectively scan every vehicle.

In 2009 the Ministry of Defense inaugurated the Querobabi Counter-narcotics and Arms-smuggling checkpoint in the state of Sonora, northwestern Mexico.  

Querobabi is certainly the most advanced military checkpoint in the country and will serve as a model for the new project.

Click here to access a video of Querobabi (in Spanish).

Addendum: Although I think that counter-narcotics checkpoints do help reduce drug trafficking, I believe that the US $150 millions should be allocated elsewhere (say Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Platoon-sized Tactical Radios or any kind of intelligence-oriented assets).

Drug Trafficking Organizations would simply find another way to avoid a permanent checkpoint…wouldn’t they?   

PS. MXSECURITY decided not to publish the location of the project’s new facilities.