My write-up is coming and also some behind the scenes pictures. In the meantime, here is a 2-minute video of high surf training with the U.S. Coast Guard off of Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

Just 100 yards or so north of the Mexican border, we stand in the middle of southbound lanes on the I-5 freeway. Here agents from Customs and Border Protection along with ICE agents are conducting a random outbound operation. The idea is to grab any guns or cash headed south to fuel the Mexican drug cartels and ongoing brutal war.

Like millions of Americans, I have come to this port of entry in San Ysidro (the largest in the world) several times as a kid with my family intent on a day of being a tourist south of the border. For many, those days are now gone as violence steals the fun of buying cheap curios and enjoying Mexican culture in this historic border city.

When officers run one of these outbound, or southbound operations, they literally have to walk into southbound traffic and stop cars on foot. There are no barriers to speak of and no checkpoints on the American side to protect those tasked with protecting our borders. This lack of security worries the San Ysidro Port Director Oscar Preciado.

As he talks with us, he glances over his shoulder at the operation and notes there’s not much there to protect his men and women standing in the street. Sure the cars have now backed up as the operation begins, but if one was to make a run for it, there’s little to stop a driver other than a body.

These searches only happen periodically because of a lack of infrastructure and manpower. Agents number one priority is stopping the flow of drugs and possible threats to our national security heading northward. As Oscar says, “If we had the resources we would like to be here 7-24, you know, the resources, the infrastructure, but we don’t so we need to be unpredictable. We need to try to catch them off guard, come in, hit them hard, then pull back and do that off and on.”

In the last two months, the situation has gotten a tad better with the introduction of Mexican troops now somewhat patrolling the Mexican side of this checkpoint. Both the Americans and our their Mexican colleagues want to stop money and guns and there has been some success. President Calderon and his supporters have to be excited about the possibility of more help now pledged by the Obama administration. More money spent here and more eyes will certainly help stem some of the flow.

Keep Reading …

As the sun rises over Tijuana, I start to think about all the changes we’ve seen along this border in the last seven years. We didn’t think twice about heading south to cover immigration issues or other stories, but now, that’s almost out of the question because of the ongoing and brutal drug war. Just two days ago, two more headless bodies were dumped in Tijuana and another bunch of police were arrested for corruption. President Calderon’s office tells me that they’re doing everything they can and by most accounts here on the border, they are making some progress. However, there is still widespread corruption in government and law enforcement south of our border, which makes the job of our border agents that much more difficult and imperative. As we report on the nearly 40 billion in illegal drug profits flowing from the US into Mexico (compared with an estimated 25 billion sent home by immigrant workers), Customs and Border Protection passes along this release and photos:

SAN DIEGO – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at San Diego area ports of entry have noticed a disturbing new trend in the past several months involving an upswing in the use of boys and young adult males to smuggle narcotics taped to their bodies as they enter the U.S. on foot.
Since late August 2008, when CBP officers first noted the upswing, until the end of last month CBP officers at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa passenger ports apprehended 157 teen and adult pedestrians entering the United States from Mexico carrying a total of 285 pounds of marijuana, 1.2 pounds of heroin, 4.7 pounds of cocaine and over nine pounds of methamphetamine concealed under their clothing.
The majority of the border crossers were young U.S. citizens while the rest were Mexican males. They ranged in age from 15 to 56, with the majority being in their teens or early 20’s. Almost 75 percent of the males were under 29 years of age and 25 percent were under age 18. Most of the males caught smuggling narcotics were wearing loose, multiple layers of clothing to hide the bulging packages taped to their bodies.

Although strapping narcotics to a traveler’s torso is not a new smuggling technique, apprehensions since last August have burgeoned 811 percent at San Ysidro and 316 percent at Otay Mesa compared to the same period the previous year when officers discovered a total of 23 pedestrians entering local ports with concealed narcotics. The trend has continued into this month with the apprehension on March 2 of three 14-year old U.S. citizen boys caught smuggling a total of  over 11 pounds of marijuana as they entered the San Ysidro port pedestrian facility from Mexico.

Every once in a while we get a sports story that slips into the news category and such is the case, I think, of the Manny Ramirez saga. While most in the sports world have followed the Dodgers as they basically bid against themselves, not everyone may have followed the slugger and his salary demands. Let’s be clear, both sides made mistakes in this fight over millions, but both sides really had little choice but to eventually work with each other. SO….here is what we’ve learned:

Last night Dodger manager Joe Torre and GM Ned Colletti flew from Glendale Arizona to Los Angeles, joined team owner Frank McCourt and met with Manny and Boras. All the parameters are in place and all that’s left is a physical. An official anouncement is expected later today and a press conference is ready to go tomorrow at Camelback Ranch, the Dodgers new spring training facility they share with the White Sox.

For the first time the Strategy Room on FoxNews.com was live from the west coast. Called ‘The BullPen’, you could have followed the action LIVE on FoxNews.com and click on the STRATEGY ROOM. But now that I have updated this post after the fact, I of course have to change the writing to past tense. You can still leave comments and feedback here and I will monitor and pick some to talk about on the air. We will also had a live stream behind the scenes for fun on the link below. It was a fun time and we hope to make this a live show every other Monday, depending on breaking news and my day to day assignments here in the west. Below you will find a behind the scenes link, a twitter link and a link to my other blogs. WHEW!

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