Big cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

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

The key passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation programs, electricity and reinforced partitions, authorities mentioned. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place greater than a dozen different subtle tunnels have been found in the final twenty years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been working and what amount of drugs, if any, received by undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to the investigation.

Six people, ages 31 to 55, were 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 restrictions of border walls. While thought of effective against small, crudely built tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls 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 medication seized could signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that have been often present in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Hard medicine, corresponding 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 troublesome to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of being able to carry enormous loads at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited america 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 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 just lately used to stash medication, officers started making visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up containers stuffed with cocaine, according to a federal legal criticism filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no different medicine at the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement flooring, federal prosecutors said.

Authorities have found about 15 sophisticated 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, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present 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 generally found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to hyperlink the most recent tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not knowing how lengthy it had been operating.

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

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

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.