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 concerning the length of a six football 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 air flow programs, electricity and strengthened walls, authorities mentioned. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space where greater than a dozen different subtle tunnels have been found within the final twenty years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of medication, if any, bought 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, had been charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in one of the vital fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border partitions. Whereas thought-about efficient towards small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls are no match for more sophisticated 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 stories deep.

The type of medication seized could sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that were usually found in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Onerous medication, similar to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small size and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry huge hundreds at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that's busy with large semitrailers through 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 lately used to stash medication, officers began making traffic stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up bins full of cocaine, in line with a federal criminal grievance filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have found about 15 refined 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, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cowl.

The cross-border passages date back to the early Nineteen Nineties and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton loads of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said 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 specific cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not realizing how long it had been operating.

“There is no such thing as a extra mild at the end of this narco-tunnel,” stated Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down each subterranean smuggling route we find to keep illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

___=

Related Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.