Large cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the discovery of a major drug smuggling tunnel — working about the length of a six soccer fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space in the U.S.

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation systems, electrical energy and reinforced partitions, 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 found within the final two decades.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been working and what amount of medicine, if any, acquired by way of 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 connection with the investigation.

Six people, 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 constraints of border walls. While considered effective in opposition to small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls aren't any match for more refined passages that run deeper underground.

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

The type of drugs seized could sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that had been typically found in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Exhausting medicine, reminiscent of 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 troublesome to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry enormous hundreds at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited the USA in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that is busy with massive semitrailers throughout the day however 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 medicine, officers began making site visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up boxes filled with cocaine, in response to a federal felony criticism filed in San Diego.

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

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

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

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

Authorities declined to hyperlink the newest tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not figuring out how long it had been working.

“There isn't a more mild on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of California. “We will take down every subterranean smuggling route we discover to keep illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

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

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Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.