Huge cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the invention of a serious drug smuggling tunnel — operating 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 air flow techniques, electricity and bolstered partitions, authorities mentioned. It was found close to 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 20 years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what amount of medication, if any, got by means of undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 kilos (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 some of the fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the restrictions of border walls. Whereas thought of effective in opposition to small, crudely built tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” partitions aren't any match for extra refined passages that run deeper underground.

The latest 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 could sign a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that were usually present in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Arduous medicine, equivalent to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled through official border crossings from Mexico because their small size and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of having the ability to carry huge loads at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited america in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that is busy with giant semitrailers in the course of the day but quiet at night. 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 started making visitors stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers full of cocaine, in line with a federal legal grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no other drugs on 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 area, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses provide cowl.

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

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

“There is no more light on the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of California. “We'll take down every subterranean smuggling route we discover 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. aspect of tunnels with concrete after they're discovered.

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Related Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.