( CNN ) -- Mexican smugglers have used tunnels , cars , boats and even the human body in attempts to sneak drugs past U.S. agents in an endless cat-and-mouse game on the U.S.-Mexico border . Now smugglers have devised a new invention to ferry their contraband over the nearly militarized border : cannons . An air-powered cannon fires bags of illegal drugs into the air from Mexico and plops them on U.S. soil , for nighttime retrieval by conspirators , U.S. authorities said Thursday . Mexican authorities recently confiscated one such cannon in the bed of a pickup truck in Mexicali , police there said . Mexicali shares the international boundary with Calexico , California . The confiscation of the cannon -- which Mexican authorities publicized in a photograph -- is the first that U.S. border and customs agents are aware of , a U.S. official said . `` Well , I 've been in ( law enforcement ) for over 20 years , and it seems like within the last five to 10 years they have gotten really , really creative in how they bring their drugs across , '' said Andy Adame , special operations supervisor for the Joint Field Command Arizona of U.S. Customs and Border Protection . Border Patrol officers to be furloughed . Cannons apparently are smugglers ' newest creation , said Adame , who 's based in Tucson . `` This is the first one that I 've seen , '' he said Thursday of the one seized by police in Mexicali . `` That was actually a pretty good one . `` They are definitely out of the ordinary , '' Adame said . In another incident , U.S. authorities found 33 cans of marijuana embedded in Arizona farmland last December , as if they dropped out of the sky , Adame said . In fact , U.S. authorities believe a pneumatic cannon fired each canister 500 feet over the Colorado River from Mexico . American agents notified Mexican authorities to search their side of the border , U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement last December . Only a carbon dioxide tank was found , the U.S. agency said . The 33 cans contained a total of 85 pounds of marijuana , valued at $ 42,500 , U.S. authorities said . Aussie police make big meth haul . `` The smugglers were trying to pick these up before daylight , but there was probably an agent in the area , '' Adame said , explaining why the smugglers on the U.S. side never collected the canisters that pockmarked the tilled land . Last week , police in Mexicali found a cannon made from a large tube in the back of an abandoned Dodge Ram pickup truck , said spokesman Edgar Lopez . The device operated with a compressor connected to the truck , Mexican authorities said . No arrests have been made . Last year , Mexican authorities seized a catapult that was used to launch bundled drugs , Lopez said . In connection with that incident , U.S. authorities seized marijuana near Naco , Arizona , that was apparently launched over the border fence , Adame said . Guards accused of smuggling phones into prison .
Police in Mexico find a cannon attached to a compressor on an abandoned pickup truck . Hide Caption In a separate incident last year , U.S. agents found cans of marijuana plopped in an Arizona field . Cannon is believed to have been involved in that incident , too , U.S. agent says .