Large cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a major drug smuggling tunnel — operating concerning the size of a six soccer fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial area in the U.S.

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow programs, electricity and reinforced partitions, authorities said. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place more than a dozen different refined tunnels have been discovered in the last twenty years.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of medication, if any, obtained by 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 connection with the investigation.

Six people, ages 31 to 55, have 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 restrictions of border walls. While thought of effective against small, crudely constructed tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls are not any match for more refined passages that run deeper underground.

The most recent passage, found Friday, ran one-third of a mile (532 m) to Tijuana. It was 4 toes (1.2 m) in diameter and about six tales deep.

The kind of medication seized might sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that were typically found in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Onerous medicine, resembling heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico because their small dimension and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus of being able to carry big masses at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that's 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 began making traffic stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up boxes stuffed with cocaine, in line with a federal felony criticism filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no other medication at the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement floor, federal prosecutors stated.

Authorities have discovered 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 space, the place 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 a great deal of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in 2020 that they're 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 working.

“There isn't a extra light on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We will take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

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

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Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.