Massive cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

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

The key passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation programs, electricity and reinforced partitions, authorities stated. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space the place greater than a dozen other subtle tunnels have been discovered within the final 20 years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of medication, if any, bought through 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 reference to the investigation.

Six folks, 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 limitations of border walls. Whereas thought-about effective towards small, crudely constructed tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls are no match for more sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

The newest 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 often present in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Exhausting medicine, similar to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled by means of official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small dimension and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of with the ability to carry enormous hundreds at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the USA in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that is busy with giant semitrailers through 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 not too long ago used to stash medicine, officers began making site visitors stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up packing containers full of cocaine, according to a federal legal grievance filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have discovered about 15 sophisticated 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 Nineteen 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 generally present in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the newest tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not figuring out how lengthy it had been operating.

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

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

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Related Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.