Large cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the invention of a major drug smuggling tunnel — operating concerning the length of a six football 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, electrical energy and bolstered walls, authorities stated. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space the place more than a dozen other refined tunnels have been discovered in the last 20 years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of medication, if any, got through 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 folks, ages 31 to 55, were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in one of the most fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border walls. While considered effective in opposition to small, crudely built tunnels called “gopher holes,” partitions are no match for more 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 kind of drugs seized may signal a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that had been typically present in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Hard drugs, akin to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled by way of 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 an advantage of with the ability to carry big loads at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that is busy with massive semitrailers throughout the day but quiet at night time. On Monday, armed guards watched over a small shaft with a ladder that descended into the tunnel.

After staking out a house that was recently used to stash medicine, officials began making site visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up bins stuffed with cocaine, in line with a federal felony criticism filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no other drugs at the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement flooring, federal prosecutors mentioned.

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 space, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cover.

The cross-border passages date back to the early 1990s and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton a great deal of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration mentioned in 2020 that they're usually found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the most recent tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory despite not knowing how lengthy it had been working.

“There isn't any extra light on the end of this narco-tunnel,” stated Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

By federal legislation, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. side of tunnels with concrete after they're found.

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Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.