The Border Patrol has opened a checkpoint on Interstate 8 in the southeastern corner of California, near a hotbed for drug trafficking and immigrant smuggling.
The checkpoint to inspect westbound motorists through the Imperial Sand Dunes opened Jan. 30.
It had been in the works for several months but the slaying of a Border Patrol agent by a suspected drug smuggler Jan. 19 may have sped the opening, said agency spokesman Quinn Palmer.
Authorities have witnessed a big increase in drug smuggling through the sand dunes, Palmer said.
