Massive cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the invention of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — running about 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 air flow programs, electricity and strengthened walls, authorities mentioned. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space where greater than a dozen other subtle tunnels have been discovered within the final two decades.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what quantity of medication, if any, bought via undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 pounds (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 fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border partitions. Whereas considered effective in opposition to small, crudely built tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls are not any match for extra subtle passages that run deeper underground.

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

The kind of medication seized might signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that were usually found in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Arduous drugs, such as heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled by means of official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small measurement and lack of odor make them tough to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus of having the ability to carry huge masses at lightning pace.

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

After staking out a house that was recently used to stash drugs, officials began making site visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up bins full of cocaine, according to a federal legal complaint filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no different medication on the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement flooring, federal prosecutors said.

Authorities have found about 15 refined 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 cover.

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 said in 2020 that they're generally found in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to hyperlink the most recent tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory despite not realizing how lengthy it had been operating.

“There isn't any extra gentle on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down every subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.