Huge cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the invention of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — running about the size of a six soccer fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial area within the U.S.

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation programs, electricity and reinforced walls, authorities mentioned. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area where more than a dozen other refined tunnels have been found within the last two decades.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what amount of medication, if any, bought through undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and three.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to 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 fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border partitions. Whereas considered effective towards small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls are not any match for extra sophisticated 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 type of medicine seized may signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that were typically found in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Hard medicine, corresponding to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled through official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of being able to carry huge hundreds at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that is busy with giant 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 not too long ago used to stash medicine, 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, based on a federal prison grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no other drugs at the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement floor, 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 provide 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 said in 2020 that they are generally found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the latest tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory despite not figuring out how long it had been working.

“There isn't any extra gentle on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We'll take down every subterranean smuggling route we discover to keep illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

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Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.