Massive cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — running concerning 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 methods, electricity and bolstered partitions, authorities said. It was found close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space where more than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been discovered within the last 20 years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what amount of medication, if any, acquired by undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of heroin in connection with the investigation.

Six individuals, ages 31 to 55, have been 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 walls. While considered effective against small, crudely built tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” walls aren't any match for extra refined passages that run deeper underground.

The most recent passage, discovered Friday, ran one-third of a mile (532 m) to Tijuana. It was 4 toes (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 have been typically found in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Hard medicine, corresponding to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled by way of official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry huge loads at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that is busy with giant semitrailers in the course of 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 home that was lately used to stash medicine, officials started making site visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up packing containers filled with cocaine, in keeping with a federal legal complaint filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no other medication on the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement ground, federal prosecutors mentioned.

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

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

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're usually present in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There isn't a extra gentle on the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney 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 families and communities.”

By federal law, U.S. authorities must 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.