Drug trafficking pays 3.5x more than human smuggling, and other takeaways on border crime in San Diego

From the most common reasons charges are filed to the drugs that defendants are most frequently accused of bringing in, here are some observations based on more than 100 complaints and search warrants

Sign in Tijuana pointing pedestrians to the San Ysidro border crossing.

I read through and analyzed more than 100 border-related complaints and search warrants filed in the federal court system’s Southern District of California, which covers San Diego and Imperial counties.

Yes, it’s a relatively small sample size. Future posts will go into this data in …