Massive cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the invention of a serious drug smuggling tunnel — operating about the size 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 air flow programs, electrical energy and strengthened walls, authorities stated. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space where more than a dozen different sophisticated tunnels have been found in the last twenty years.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of medication, if any, got through undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 kilos (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 some of the fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border partitions. Whereas considered efficient in opposition to small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” partitions aren't any match for more 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 type of medication seized might sign a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that have been typically found in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Hard medication, corresponding to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled by way of official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus of having the ability to carry huge hundreds at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited america in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that is busy with giant semitrailers throughout 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 house that was just lately used to stash medicine, officials started making visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up packing containers filled with cocaine, in keeping with a federal felony grievance filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have found 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 1990s and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton loads 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 link the latest tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory despite not figuring out how long it had been working.

“There isn't any more light on the end 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 keep illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

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Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.