Large cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the invention of a serious drug smuggling tunnel — working concerning the length 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 air flow programs, electricity and reinforced walls, authorities stated. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place more than a dozen other refined tunnels have been found in the last two decades.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of drugs, if any, acquired via undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and three.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of heroin in connection with the investigation.

Six folks, ages 31 to 55, had been 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 walls. While thought-about effective towards small, crudely built tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” walls are not any match for extra sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

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

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

Exhausting medicine, resembling heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled by way of official border crossings from Mexico because their small dimension and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of being able to carry huge loads at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited the USA 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 not too long ago used to stash medicine, officials started making visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up packing containers filled with cocaine, in response to a federal legal criticism filed in San Diego.

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

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 area, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cover.

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

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

“There isn't any more gentle at the end of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer 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 households and communities.”

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

___=

Associated Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.