Former members of crime lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman’s cartel testified during his trial that drug traffickers usually smuggled drugs through legal checkpoints along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The testimony is interesting in the context of the shutdown fight in Washington over President Trump Donald John TrumpObama calls on Senate not to fill Ginsburg's vacancy until after election Planned Parenthood: 'The fate of our rights' depends on Ginsburg replacement Progressive group to spend M in ad campaign on Supreme Court vacancy MORE's demands for a border wall.

Trump has argued the wall is necessary to stop illegal immigrants and drugs from crossing the border. Democrats have repeatedly pointed to reports indicating that most illegal drugs entering the United States from Mexico come through legal checkpoints.

Witnesses revealed in the 10 weeks of testimony at Guzman’s trial that smugglers resorted to using tunnels and sea routes, among other innovative measures, as a means to smuggle drugs from Mexico into the United States, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

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But they also testified about smuggling drugs into the U.S. by hiding the drugs in shipments that crossed at normal checkpoints.

Some testified that one of El Chapo's earliest methods of smuggling drugs into the country was by using passenger cars with hidden compartments in their chassis. He would allegedly divide the amount of drugs among multiple vehicles to help better their chances to go unnoticed.

Another witness testified that Guzman would send cocaine-packed cans disguised as jalapeño cans across the border using commercial tractor-trailers. He would reportedly place the cans containing the drug in the middle of a load of cans filled with chiles that were packed onto pallets.

Witnesses claimed the kingpin would also use sea routes as a means of smuggling drugs into the country, though less frequently.

One of Guzmán’s logistics chiefs, Jesus Zambada García, also reportedly testified early in the trial about how drug traffickers used a tunnel underneath a ranch house in Agua Prieta, Mexico, to smuggle drugs.

The tunnel reportedly reached a warehouse in Douglas, Ariz., that was located just blocks away from a Customs and Border Protection office nearby.

The report comes as President Trump has argued that his long-desired wall along the southern border could help cut down on drug trade at the border in addition to illegal immigration.

“If we build a powerful and fully designed see-through steel barrier on our southern border, the crime rate and drug problem in our country would be quickly and greatly reduced,” Trump said Saturday. “Some say it could be cut in half.”

“We can stop heroin,” he added.

The government has entered its 33rd day of a partial shutdown over Trump's demand for more than $5 billion in funding for the wall, a request that congressional Democrats have rejected.