Huge cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — running concerning the length of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space within the U.S.

The key passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation methods, electrical energy and bolstered partitions, authorities mentioned. It was found close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space the place more than a dozen different sophisticated tunnels have been discovered within the final two decades.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been working and what quantity of drugs, if any, acquired by means of undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and three.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to the investigation.

Six individuals, ages 31 to 55, were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in probably the most fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the restrictions of border walls. While thought of effective in opposition to small, crudely built tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls are no match for more refined passages that run deeper underground.

The most recent passage, found Friday, ran one-third of a mile (532 m) to Tijuana. It was 4 toes (1.2 m) in diameter and about six tales deep.

The type of medication seized may signal a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that had been often found in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Arduous drugs, reminiscent of heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled by way of official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small measurement and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. But tunnels give smugglers an advantage of being able to carry big masses at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited america in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that's busy with giant semitrailers during the day but quiet at night time. On Monday, armed guards watched over a small shaft with a ladder that descended into the tunnel.

After staking out a home that was not too long ago used to stash medicine, officials began making site visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers full of cocaine, according to a federal legal grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no different medicine on the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement flooring, federal prosecutors mentioned.

Authorities have discovered about 15 sophisticated tunnels on California’s border with Mexico since 2006.

Many tunnels, together with the one introduced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial space, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses provide cover.

The cross-border passages date back to the early 1990s and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton loads of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in 2020 that they are typically found in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the newest tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory despite not figuring out how lengthy it had been operating.

“There is no more gentle on the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We will take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit medicine from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

By federal law, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. side of tunnels with concrete after they are discovered.

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Related Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.