The drug smugglers mentioned in this column are real entrepreneurs. Their plan to smuggle marijuana from Mexico to Arizona was ingenious, even though it failed. Had they applied this type of thinking to a legitimate business, they’d probably be operating a thriving business and employing dozens of workers right now.

It’s January, 2011, and the marijuana business across the Mexican-Arizona border is in high gear. There’s a fence at the international border at Naco, some 80 miles southeast of Tuscon, but smugglers have figured out a way around that.

According to news reports from KVOA-TV in Tuscon, American National Guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system at the Naco border report they saw people — on the Mexico side — building a CATAPULT from which they were launching packages of illegal drugs over the border fence into the U. S.

Can you believe it? A catapult! The same weapon the ancients used to hurl rocks and huge balls of fire at their enemies. These fierce weapons date back to the 10th Century when they were used by the Chinese, Greeks and Romans. Catapults were introduced to the western world in the early 1200s when the French assaulted English castles with huge rocks and balls of fire.

After spotting the Mexican catapult operation, American authorities notify Mexican police and soon (maybe hours later) Mexican cops "disrupt the catapult operation." The smugglers, already alerted that the cops are coming, have abandoned the launch site area and are nowhere to be found.

Mexican cops seize 45 pounds of boxed marijuana, an SUV, and the makings of a catapult in good operating condition.