Large cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the invention of a major drug smuggling tunnel — operating 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 systems, electricity and reinforced partitions, authorities mentioned. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area where greater than a dozen different refined tunnels have been found within the last 20 years.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what quantity of medicine, if any, acquired through undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and three.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 one of the vital fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border walls. While thought of efficient towards small, crudely built tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” walls aren't any match for more subtle passages that run deeper underground.

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

Laborious drugs, comparable to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small size and lack of odor make them tough to detect. But tunnels give smugglers an advantage of being able to carry huge loads at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that is busy with large semitrailers in the course of 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 drugs, officers began making site visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up boxes full of cocaine, in response to a federal prison criticism filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no different drugs on the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement floor, federal prosecutors said.

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

Many tunnels, together with the one introduced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial area, where 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 mentioned in 2020 that they're typically found 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 knowing how long it had been operating.

“There is no extra gentle at the finish of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down every subterranean smuggling route we find to maintain illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

By federal legislation, U.S. authorities should fill the U.S. side of tunnels with concrete after they're discovered.

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.