DUBAI/TORONTO (Reuters) ? The insolvency of an Islamic mortgage lender in Canada may hinder the growth of sharia-compliant finance in North America, where the industry has struggled to gain traction in the absence of a supportive regulatory framework.
UM Financial Inc was ordered into receivership in October, leaving about $32 million worth of mortgages in the hands of Toronto?s legal system. Accounting and business advisory firm Grant Thornton was appointed receiver by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
The case has exposed uncertainty over the legal treatment of sharia-compliant mortgages in default, and questions over the transparency and oversight of smaller Islamic lenders. Industry experts said this could make investors in Canada and the United States more wary of considering Islamic finance in future.
?The failure of an Islamic financial institution should not immediately be construed as a failure of sharia-based financing,? said Sheikh Muddassir Siddiqui, sharia scholar and partner at SNR Denton in Dubai.
But he added that the insolvency could give Islamic finance a bad name if the Canadian legal system determined that Islamic mortgage holders were not the ultimate owners of property for which they had been paying.
Since Islam forbids the use of interest, sharia-compliant mortgages rely on a ?diminishing musharaka? contract to help Muslims finance homebuying. A lender and a homebuyer share the costs of purchasing a home; the homeowner then pays rent to the lender while purchasing the lender?s share of the house in installments. When the value of the house is eventually paid off, full title is transferred to the homeowner.
But it is unclear who ultimately owns the home in the case of a bankruptcy by the lender, if legal title remains with the lender. This raises concern that mortgage holders could lose their homes if creditors come after the lender?s assets.
In UM Financial Inc?s case, homeowners are in limbo while the receiver investigates the insolvency. Some clients say they are reluctant to continue their normal payments to a non-sharia compliant entity, which raises the risk of them losing their homes for non-payment.
CUSTOMERS IN LIMBO
Omar Rahman, a 28-year-old recent college graduate, said the mortgage on his family?s home in the suburbs of Toronto was nearly paid in full. But the insolvency means the mortgage could be transferred to a non-Muslim lender, violating the family?s conservative religious ideology, he said.
?The contract between us and UM Financial was sharia-compliant,? Rahman said. ?There are no guarantees that it won?t be sold to a company that is not sharia-compliant, and that?s a scary thought for us. We have actually stopped making any payments until everything gets resolved.?
Another Toronto-based client of UM Financial Inc, who asked not to be named, said the experience had made him think twice about the use of Islamic finance.
?I thought that by working with a sharia-compliant lender and paying a premium over what I would have paid with a traditional mortgage, I was doing the right thing as a Muslim,? he said.
?I almost think it would have been better to go the traditional route. At least there would be some accountability.?
Such dissatisfaction is bad news for the development of Islamic finance in Canada, home to about 1.3 million Muslims. UM Financial Inc was one of the most established sharia-compliant mortgage providers in the country.
?I think this situation will cause reputational damage to the industry, similar in some ways to the situation in Egypt years ago when Egyptians lost millions of dollars in a corruption scandal involving a sharia-compliant institution,? said Nabil Issa, partner at law firm King Spalding in Dubai.
?That was a majority Muslim country and (the scandal) had repercussions on the growth of Islamic finance that are still being felt today.?
Thousands of Egyptians were hurt in the 1980s by money management companies that touted Islamic investments at returns above prevailing interest rates and did not deliver on their promises. Egyptians were left with a distrust of the industry, which is one reason that the country has lagged Gulf Arab states in promoting Islamic finance.
In Canada and the United States, Islamic finance has largely been confined to mortgages because of a lack of regulatory standards in place to accommodate full-scale Islamic banking and issuance of sukuk, or Islamic bonds.
FINANCE
Walid Hejazi, professor at the University of Toronto?s Rotman School of Management, said Islamic finance in Canada was hampered by the fact that big established banks were not involved in the industry. Smaller players therefore had difficulty seeking finance.
UM Financial obtained financing from Canada?s Central 1 Credit Union, which called for repayment in November 2010. Central 1 then applied in March this year for the appointment of a receiver.
According to a suit filed against Central 1 Credit by UM Financial Inc, Central 1 Credit told the Islamic lender it ?wished to discontinue its involvement in the Islamic finance business by the first quarter of 2012?.
It turned down offers by other lenders to buy the sharia-compliant portfolio and prevent the receivership, Norman Ayoub, who was a board member of UM Financial Inc at the time, said in an emailed statement.
?To my knowledge at the time no mortgage was in default, nor was there a payment of the loan to Central in arrears,? he said.
A spokesman for Central 1 declined to comment, referring the matter to the receiver. Representatives of Grant Thornton declined to comment.
Contacted by Reuters, UM Financial Inc?s chief executive Omar Kalair declined to comment, citing pending court proceedings. But his attorney, Harvin Pitch of Teplitsky Colson, said in an emailed statement that Grant Thornton had not concluded that anyone in the company had broken Canadian law; it also said Kalair ?has been cooperating with the receiver on all requests where allowed by law?.
Harvin added that ?the solution to the receivership is obviously a sale of the portfolio to a new lender who can service the clients hopefully in a sharia-compliant manner?.
Grant Thornton has placed advertisements seeking buyers in Canadian newspapers.
UM Financial Group, an affiliate of UM Financial Inc, said it was in final talks with a Gulf-based Islamic bank for the two institutions jointly to enter the Canadian market as a finance company, potentially acquiring UM Financial Inc?s portfolio. UM Financial Group did not elaborate on the identity of the Gulf institution.
SNR Denton?s Siddiqui said the industry was hoping for a quick resolution, either through the courts or through the acquisition of the portfolio by a sharia-compliant lender.
?If no one comes to help it to meet its financial obligations, innocent customers may go through the agony of worrying about the possibility of losing their homes through no fault of their own. It will be a setback for the industry.?
Global problem of fatal snakebites and promising solutions such as motorcycle ambulances, rapid diagnostic tests and new antivenoms highlighted at ASTMH meeting
Philadelphia, Pa. -- Fatal snakebites are a bigger-than-acknowledged global health problem that has been vastly under-reported, according to research presented today at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's (ASTMH) annual meeting.
A key reason for the low count is that many snakebite victims are treated or die without seeking or reaching health facilities. A Bangladeshi study, for example, found that only 3 percent of those treated went directly to a physician or hospital. Rather, 86 percent saw a "snake charmer." Snakebite victims often do not go to hospitals because they have to travel too far, antivenom is scarce in many regions, or the treatment can be too expensive.
"People are dying in their villages without 'bothering' the health system," said Ulrich Kuch, head of the Emerging and Neglected Tropical Diseases Unit at the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt, Germany. "They simply don't show up in the statistics."
The World Health Organization estimates that up to 5 million people suffer from snakebites each year, resulting in 300,000 cases of permanent disability and about 100,000 deaths. But two recent studies reveal that the magnitude of the problem is far greater than official statistics show. One survey, published in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases in 2011, found that 46,000 people die every year in India from snakebites, compared to the official figure of 2,000. A second survey found 700,000 snakebites and 6,000 deaths annually in Bangladesh alone, far higher than previous estimates.
"In the 21st century, snakebite is the most neglected of all the neglected tropical diseases," said David Warrell, emeritus professor of Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and one of the study's authors. "The deaths and suffering from venomous snakebites remain largely invisible to the global health community."
While just a handful of people in the United States die each year from snakebites, venomous snakebites greatly afflict the most impoverished people in rural areas in low- and middle-income countries. As many people die from snakebites as from several recognized neglected tropical diseases, and, similarly, snakebites also lack the support of major foundations, development agencies and global leaders, according to Warrell. If the bitten survive, they often are permanently disabled by the effect of the toxins in the venom.
"Neglected tropical diseases too often hold people and their families and communities hostage to poverty," said Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, president of ASTMH and a noted tropical disease expert. "Investing in research for answers that will bring an end to needless suffering, through adequate cures and life-saving health programs, is a smart investment for funders, both private and public."
Volunteer Motorcycle Ambulances, Rapid Diagnostic Tests, New Antivenoms
In the absence of significant global initiatives, scientists, research institutions and community-based organizations are taking it upon themselves to develop solutions in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the world's most-affected regions. These latest developments were presented at the symposium.
One successful program uses volunteer motorcycle drivers to rush victims in southeastern Nepal to a community-based snakebite treatment center. Data presented at the conference showed that the program substantially reduced the snakebite death-ratefrom 10.5 percent to 0.5 percent, compared to no decrease in other villages surveyed. "It actually seemed too good to be true," said Franois Chappuis, Associate Professor in the Division of International and Humanitarian Medicine at Geneva University Hospitals.
The program began in 2003 after a study found that 80 percent of deaths due to snakebites in villages surveyed occurred outside a medical center and that half of those victims died on the way to the health facility. So researchers established a program where volunteer motorbike owners race snakebite victims 24-hours-a-day to the Damak Red Cross Health Center for fast medical care. They also launched an educational campaign where Nepalese residents met with villagers and community health workers and distributed leaflets in the most affected villages. "The message was extremely straightforward: you get bitten, you call a motorcycle volunteer and you go as fast as possible to the medical center," Chappuis said. The program was expanded to 40 villages and in 2011 began in south central Nepal with hopes of it being replicated in India.
Scientists also presented promising data on rapid diagnostic tests being developed to allow physicians to make fast decisions on whether to give antivenom and which type to use. Currently, standard practice is to wait until symptoms of envenomation appear before giving antivenom because it can have serious side effects and supply is scarce. This is reasonable in many cases. However, the venom of certain species irreversibly destroys parts of the nervous system before envenomation becomes clinically apparent, making the resulting life-threatening paralysis resistant to antivenom treatment. With a 20-minute strip test that shows if venom was injected and by which species, doctors can give antivenom immediately after such bites, before patients become severely ill or die. The tests are easy to use in rural, poor settings.
The tests discussed at the forum would detect bites from two deadly snakesthe Russell's viper and the krait. The krait test is in preliminary stages for potential use in South Asia. The Russell's viper test successfully completed preclinical testing with a clinical trial expected in 2012. It has been designed for Burma with plans to adapt it for wider use throughout South and Southeast Asia.
In addition, researchers discussed their progress on the development of cheaper, effective antivenoms, which are scarce or nonexistent in some parts of the world, or are too expensive.
The nonprofit Instituto Clodomiro Picado (ICP) of the University of Costa Rica has teamed up with governments, manufacturers and world-renowned universities and research institutionsincluding Oxford, the University of Melbourne, Instituto de Biomedicina of Valencia, Spain, and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicineto develop new antivenoms for sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
One is for the taipan of Papua New Guinea, one of the most venomous snakes in the world. Though a good Australian antivenom exists, it is scarce in Papua New Guinea because of its very high price. The new antivenom for Papua New Guinea, at a fraction of the cost, successfully completed laboratory and animal testing, with the results published in 2011 in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. A clinical trial will start this year.
This comes on the heels of two new effective antivenoms panelists worked on that are starting to be distributed in Nigeriaone for the saw-scaled viper and a "polyspecific" antivenom that works for three snakes. One is being manufactured in the UK and the other at ICP in Costa Rica, which would also produce the antivenom for Papua New Guinea.
But a new project presented at the ASTMH forum takes a different approach. The ICP will help formulate a polyspecific antivenom for five snakes in Sri Lanka and then transfer the technology to Sri Lanka for local production. The ICP is collaborating with the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka and a US-based non-profit, Animal Venom Research International, said Jos Mara Gutirrez, PhD, head of the Research Division of ICP and Professor at the University of Costa Rica.
"These new antivenoms show how international partnerships between organizations that have different strengths can work together and solve problems in diverse parts of the world," he said.
The December 5th symposium, Snakebite Envenomation: From Global Awareness to Best Practice Implementation, will feature leading snakebite authorities from Bangladesh, Germany, the UK, Nepal, Nigeria and Costa Rica.
On December 6th, Warrell will present findings on new medical symptoms documented in people bitten by certain snake species in his talk, Newly Recognized Clinical Syndromes of Snakebite Envenoming.
###
About ASTMH
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, founded in 1903, is a worldwide organization of scientists, clinicians and program professionals whose mission is to promote global health through the prevention and control of infectious and other diseases that disproportionately afflict the global poor.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Snakebite victims absent in health system as most consult traditional healers Public release date: 5-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Global problem of fatal snakebites and promising solutions such as motorcycle ambulances, rapid diagnostic tests and new antivenoms highlighted at ASTMH meeting
Philadelphia, Pa. -- Fatal snakebites are a bigger-than-acknowledged global health problem that has been vastly under-reported, according to research presented today at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's (ASTMH) annual meeting.
A key reason for the low count is that many snakebite victims are treated or die without seeking or reaching health facilities. A Bangladeshi study, for example, found that only 3 percent of those treated went directly to a physician or hospital. Rather, 86 percent saw a "snake charmer." Snakebite victims often do not go to hospitals because they have to travel too far, antivenom is scarce in many regions, or the treatment can be too expensive.
"People are dying in their villages without 'bothering' the health system," said Ulrich Kuch, head of the Emerging and Neglected Tropical Diseases Unit at the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt, Germany. "They simply don't show up in the statistics."
The World Health Organization estimates that up to 5 million people suffer from snakebites each year, resulting in 300,000 cases of permanent disability and about 100,000 deaths. But two recent studies reveal that the magnitude of the problem is far greater than official statistics show. One survey, published in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases in 2011, found that 46,000 people die every year in India from snakebites, compared to the official figure of 2,000. A second survey found 700,000 snakebites and 6,000 deaths annually in Bangladesh alone, far higher than previous estimates.
"In the 21st century, snakebite is the most neglected of all the neglected tropical diseases," said David Warrell, emeritus professor of Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and one of the study's authors. "The deaths and suffering from venomous snakebites remain largely invisible to the global health community."
While just a handful of people in the United States die each year from snakebites, venomous snakebites greatly afflict the most impoverished people in rural areas in low- and middle-income countries. As many people die from snakebites as from several recognized neglected tropical diseases, and, similarly, snakebites also lack the support of major foundations, development agencies and global leaders, according to Warrell. If the bitten survive, they often are permanently disabled by the effect of the toxins in the venom.
"Neglected tropical diseases too often hold people and their families and communities hostage to poverty," said Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, president of ASTMH and a noted tropical disease expert. "Investing in research for answers that will bring an end to needless suffering, through adequate cures and life-saving health programs, is a smart investment for funders, both private and public."
Volunteer Motorcycle Ambulances, Rapid Diagnostic Tests, New Antivenoms
In the absence of significant global initiatives, scientists, research institutions and community-based organizations are taking it upon themselves to develop solutions in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the world's most-affected regions. These latest developments were presented at the symposium.
One successful program uses volunteer motorcycle drivers to rush victims in southeastern Nepal to a community-based snakebite treatment center. Data presented at the conference showed that the program substantially reduced the snakebite death-ratefrom 10.5 percent to 0.5 percent, compared to no decrease in other villages surveyed. "It actually seemed too good to be true," said Franois Chappuis, Associate Professor in the Division of International and Humanitarian Medicine at Geneva University Hospitals.
The program began in 2003 after a study found that 80 percent of deaths due to snakebites in villages surveyed occurred outside a medical center and that half of those victims died on the way to the health facility. So researchers established a program where volunteer motorbike owners race snakebite victims 24-hours-a-day to the Damak Red Cross Health Center for fast medical care. They also launched an educational campaign where Nepalese residents met with villagers and community health workers and distributed leaflets in the most affected villages. "The message was extremely straightforward: you get bitten, you call a motorcycle volunteer and you go as fast as possible to the medical center," Chappuis said. The program was expanded to 40 villages and in 2011 began in south central Nepal with hopes of it being replicated in India.
Scientists also presented promising data on rapid diagnostic tests being developed to allow physicians to make fast decisions on whether to give antivenom and which type to use. Currently, standard practice is to wait until symptoms of envenomation appear before giving antivenom because it can have serious side effects and supply is scarce. This is reasonable in many cases. However, the venom of certain species irreversibly destroys parts of the nervous system before envenomation becomes clinically apparent, making the resulting life-threatening paralysis resistant to antivenom treatment. With a 20-minute strip test that shows if venom was injected and by which species, doctors can give antivenom immediately after such bites, before patients become severely ill or die. The tests are easy to use in rural, poor settings.
The tests discussed at the forum would detect bites from two deadly snakesthe Russell's viper and the krait. The krait test is in preliminary stages for potential use in South Asia. The Russell's viper test successfully completed preclinical testing with a clinical trial expected in 2012. It has been designed for Burma with plans to adapt it for wider use throughout South and Southeast Asia.
In addition, researchers discussed their progress on the development of cheaper, effective antivenoms, which are scarce or nonexistent in some parts of the world, or are too expensive.
The nonprofit Instituto Clodomiro Picado (ICP) of the University of Costa Rica has teamed up with governments, manufacturers and world-renowned universities and research institutionsincluding Oxford, the University of Melbourne, Instituto de Biomedicina of Valencia, Spain, and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicineto develop new antivenoms for sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
One is for the taipan of Papua New Guinea, one of the most venomous snakes in the world. Though a good Australian antivenom exists, it is scarce in Papua New Guinea because of its very high price. The new antivenom for Papua New Guinea, at a fraction of the cost, successfully completed laboratory and animal testing, with the results published in 2011 in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. A clinical trial will start this year.
This comes on the heels of two new effective antivenoms panelists worked on that are starting to be distributed in Nigeriaone for the saw-scaled viper and a "polyspecific" antivenom that works for three snakes. One is being manufactured in the UK and the other at ICP in Costa Rica, which would also produce the antivenom for Papua New Guinea.
But a new project presented at the ASTMH forum takes a different approach. The ICP will help formulate a polyspecific antivenom for five snakes in Sri Lanka and then transfer the technology to Sri Lanka for local production. The ICP is collaborating with the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka and a US-based non-profit, Animal Venom Research International, said Jos Mara Gutirrez, PhD, head of the Research Division of ICP and Professor at the University of Costa Rica.
"These new antivenoms show how international partnerships between organizations that have different strengths can work together and solve problems in diverse parts of the world," he said.
The December 5th symposium, Snakebite Envenomation: From Global Awareness to Best Practice Implementation, will feature leading snakebite authorities from Bangladesh, Germany, the UK, Nepal, Nigeria and Costa Rica.
On December 6th, Warrell will present findings on new medical symptoms documented in people bitten by certain snake species in his talk, Newly Recognized Clinical Syndromes of Snakebite Envenoming.
###
About ASTMH
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, founded in 1903, is a worldwide organization of scientists, clinicians and program professionals whose mission is to promote global health through the prevention and control of infectious and other diseases that disproportionately afflict the global poor.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
WASHINGTON ? A federal trade panel has found that Chinese imports harm or threaten to harm the U.S. solar panel industry.
That means a complaint by U.S. solar companies can continue.
Seven companies complained to the International Trade Commission in October that Chinese competitors were "dumping" solar products on global markets to depress prices.
The complaint asks for tough trade penalties on Chinese solar imports.
The trade panel voted unanimously Friday to investigate.
The case has caused a split in the solar industry.
Some U.S. companies say Chinese imports have lowered prices for solar panels, helping consumers and promoting rapid growth of the industry.
California-based Solyndra Inc. cited competition from China as it filed for bankruptcy in September despite receiving a half-billion-dollar federal loan.
Kristin Cavallari and Jay Cutler confirmed they were engaged -- again! -- on Wednesday, and now that there's a wedding in the works, her NFL beau is letting his future wife take charge of planning their big day.
"I don't really make a lot of [wedding] decisions," Cutler, 28, told ESPN's Waddle & Silvy radio show Wednesday. "I hear about them in passing, or if I have to possibly write a check or something like that, but other than that, whatever she wants to do, I'm on board."
PHOTOS: Stars' blingy engagement rings
Cutler and the Hills star, 24, called off their engagement in July.?According to one insider, Cavallari was "blindsided" by the split. "Jay dumped her out of nowhere."
PHOTOS: K-Cav's best bikini moments
Just two weeks after calling off their engagement, Cavallari and Cutler made the proper etiquette move by returning their wedding gifts.
Since then, the duo had been spotted packing on the PDA -- and Cutler even came out to support Cavallari during her brief Dancing with the Stars stint.
PHOTOS: Hollywood's broken engagements
Last month, one tabloid mag claimed that Cavallari was having an affair with Kourtney Kardashian's partner Scott Disick. "It's 100 percent not true," Cavallari said on The Billy Bush Show, adding that Cutler "didn't believe [the report] for one second."?
Tell Us: Will Kristin and Jay make it to the altar the second time around??
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A Mexican army soldier stands next to an elevator shaft that lowers into a tunnel in the northern border city of Tijuana, Mexico Wednesday Nov. 30, 2011. U.S. authorities said they discovered a new cross-border tunnel Tuesday, the latest in a spate of secret passages found to smuggle drugs from Mexico. The tunnel was found in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, a warehouse district across the border from Tijuana, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (AP Photo/Alex Cossio)
A Mexican army soldier stands next to an elevator shaft that lowers into a tunnel in the northern border city of Tijuana, Mexico Wednesday Nov. 30, 2011. U.S. authorities said they discovered a new cross-border tunnel Tuesday, the latest in a spate of secret passages found to smuggle drugs from Mexico. The tunnel was found in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, a warehouse district across the border from Tijuana, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (AP Photo/Alex Cossio)
A news photographer walks inside a tunnel in the northern border city of Tijuana, Mexico Wednesday Nov. 30, 2011. A day earlier, the tunnel was discovered by U.S. authorities in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, the latest in a spate of secret passages found to smuggle drugs from Mexico. This tunnel is a 400-yard (meter) passage linking warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana and is equipped with lighting and ventilation. (AP Photo/Alex Cossio)
This image provided by the San Diego Tunnel Task Force shows the entrance to a cross-border tunnel in San Diego on Tuesday Nov. 29, 2011, the latest in a spate of secret passages found to smuggle drugs from Mexico. The tunnel was found in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, a warehouse district across the border from Tijuana, according to authorities. (AP Photo/San Diego Tunnel Task Force)
View from inside a tunnel recently found in the northern border city of Tijuana, Mexico Wednesday Nov. 30, 2011. A day earlier, the tunnel was discovered by U.S. authorities in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, the latest in a spate of secret passages found to smuggle drugs from Mexico. This tunnel is a 400-yard (meter) passage linking warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana and is equipped with lighting and ventilation. (AP Photo/Alex Cossio)
View from inside a tunnel recently found in the northern border city of Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday Nov. 30, 2011. A day earlier, the tunnel was discovered by U.S. authorities in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, the latest in a spate of secret passages found to smuggle drugs from Mexico. This tunnel is a 400-yard (meter) passage linking warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana and is equipped with lighting and ventilation. (AP Photo/Alex Cossio)
SAN DIEGO (AP) ? The investigation into the largest marijuana bust at a cross-border tunnel followed a familiar timeline. It began in May and ended in November.
The secret passage linking warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana ? equipped with a hydraulic lift, electric rail carts and a wooden staircase ? highlights an emerging seasonal trend. For three years, authorities have found sophisticated tunnels on the U.S.-Mexico border shortly before the winter holidays in what officials speculate is an attempt by drug smugglers to take advantage of Mexico's fall marijuana harvest.
Two weeks ago, authorities seized 17 tons of marijuana in connection with a tunnel linking warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana. Authorities began investigating that passage in June, according to court filings.
Tuesday's find netted more than 32 tons of marijuana ? nearly 17 tons at a warehouse in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, about 11 tons inside a truck in the Los Angeles area and 4 tons in Mexico. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, it ranks as the second-largest pot bust in U.S. history if the drugs found on the Mexican side of the tunnel are counted and the third-largest without the Mexican stash.
As U.S. authorities heighten enforcement on land, tunnels have become an increasingly common way to smuggle enormous loads of marijuana. More than 70 passages have been found on the border since October 2008, surpassing the number of discoveries in the previous six years
Raids last November on two tunnels linking San Diego and Tijuana netted a combined 52 tons of marijuana on both sides of the border. In early December 2009, authorities found an incomplete tunnel that stretched nearly 900 feet into San Diego from Tijuana, equipped with an elevator at the Mexican entrance.
Authorities say central Mexico's marijuana harvest in early October presents drug cartels with a familiar challenge for any farmer: how to quickly get products to consumers.
"It's a significant amount of inventory that the cartels need to move and they need to move it in the most expeditious and efficient way," said Derek Benner, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's special agent in charge of investigations in San Diego. "It's like any other business. You've got a pile of inventory that you need to get moving and generate profits."
William Sherman, the DEA's acting special agent in charge in San Diego, said drug traffickers also may go on a pre-Christmas smuggling push to give themselves a "little bit of hiatus" over the holidays to visit family in Mexico. DEA wiretaps tend to go quiet during the holidays, he said.
It's unclear whether cartels are building the tunnels in time for the winter holidays or if that's when authorities just happen to find them.
Some U.S. authorities are inclined to think the cartels are timing construction for the fall harvest, based on their belief that this year's two major finds in San Diego and one last year in San Diego were discovered shortly after they were completed. Heightened activity around building and operating the tunnels drew suspicion and exposed smugglers to getting caught.
It takes roughly six months to a year to build a tunnel, authorities say. Workers use shovels and pickaxes to slowly dig through the soil, sleeping in the warehouse until the job is done. Sometimes they use pneumatic tools.
The tunnel discovered Tuesday was about 40 feet deep, 4 feet wide and 4 feet high. It featured a wooden staircase at the U.S. entrance, located inside a large, white building with a long line of trucking docks.
The Mexican warehouse was on the same block as a federal police office and sits next to a runway at Tijuana's main airport. It featured a hydraulic lift at the tunnel entrance that dropped about 30 feet. Its carpeted floors were found littered with garbage and dirty linen. The kitchen was stocked with tortillas and oranges, with a window painted black.
Six men were charged in federal courts in Southern California with conspiracy to distribute marijuana. No arrests were made in Mexico.
U.S. authorities linked last November's find to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, that country's most-wanted drug lord. U.S. and Mexican authorities declined to link Tuesday's discovery to a specific cartel.
___
Associated Press writer Mariana Martinez contributed to this report from Tijuana, Mexico.
In the realm of brutal hand-to-hand combat, Infinity Blade 2 promises to be without peer. The game will launch tonight on the App Store, and while its said to run just fine on the original iPad, iPhone 3GS / 4, it packs special optimizations for the A5 chip found in every iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, which allows the enhanced lighting and shading effects to fully shine. A follow-up to the original Infinity Blade, battle-hardened warriors will discover 40 new locations, along with added weapons, spells and fighting styles. Priced at $9.99, the 941MB download is expected to hit around 11PM Eastern time. A full preview video follows the break, and for those unfamiliar with Infinity Blade, the original game will soon be available for a limited-time promotional price of $2.99. Game on, everyone.
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Public release date: 5-Dec-2011
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