Huge cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a major 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 ventilation programs, electricity and bolstered walls, authorities said. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place greater than a dozen other subtle tunnels have been discovered within the final 20 years.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of drugs, if any, received through undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (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 crucial fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the restrictions of border partitions. Whereas thought of effective against small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” partitions are no match for more sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

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

The kind of medication seized may sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that have been usually present in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Exhausting medication, similar to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled by official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry enormous loads at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that is busy with large semitrailers through 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 house that was recently used to stash medication, officials began making traffic stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up bins filled with cocaine, in response to a federal criminal grievance filed in San Diego.

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

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

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

The cross-border passages date back to the early Nineties and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton loads of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration stated in 2020 that they're typically present 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 understanding how lengthy it had been operating.

“There isn't any more gentle on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down each subterranean smuggling route we find to keep illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

By federal legislation, U.S. authorities should fill the U.S. facet of tunnels with concrete after they're found.

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Associated Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.