Massive 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 in regards to the size of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space within the U.S.

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation techniques, electrical energy and bolstered walls, authorities said. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area where more than a dozen different subtle tunnels have been discovered in the last two decades.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of medication, if any, got via undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 kilos (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to the investigation.

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

The tunnel is in one of the most fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the restrictions of border partitions. Whereas considered effective towards small, crudely constructed tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” walls aren't any match for more sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

The latest 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 kind of medicine seized might signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that have been often present in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Laborious medication, corresponding to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of having the ability to carry big masses at lightning speed.

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

After staking out a house that was lately used to stash medication, officials began making visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers filled with cocaine, in accordance with a federal legal criticism filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no other medication at the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement ground, federal prosecutors said.

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

Many tunnels, including the one introduced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial area, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cowl.

The cross-border passages date again to the early 1990s and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton loads of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration mentioned in 2020 that they're usually found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the newest tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory despite not realizing how long it had been working.

“There isn't any more mild at the end of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We will take down each subterranean smuggling route we find to maintain illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

By federal regulation, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. aspect of tunnels with concrete after they're discovered.

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Associated Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.