Massive cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the discovery of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — working concerning the length of a six soccer fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space in the U.S.

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

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been working and what amount of drugs, if any, bought by way of 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 crucial fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border partitions. Whereas thought-about efficient towards small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” partitions are no match for extra subtle passages that run deeper underground.

The newest 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 tales deep.

The kind of medication seized may signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that were usually found in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Onerous medication, such as heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled by official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small measurement and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus of being able to carry big masses at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that is busy with large semitrailers during 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 recently used to stash medicine, officers started making site visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up bins stuffed with cocaine, in keeping with a federal felony criticism filed in San Diego.

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

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

Many tunnels, together with the one announced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial area, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cover.

The cross-border passages date again to the early Nineteen Nineties and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton a great deal of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration stated in 2020 that they are typically present in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There isn't a more light at the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We will take down each subterranean smuggling route we find to maintain illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

By federal regulation, U.S. authorities should fill the U.S. facet of tunnels with concrete after they're found.

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.