Massive cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the invention of a major drug smuggling tunnel — running concerning the size of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space within the U.S.

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation programs, electrical energy and reinforced partitions, authorities mentioned. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space the place greater than a dozen different refined tunnels have been found in the last twenty years.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what amount of medicine, if any, acquired via undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and three.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of heroin in connection with the investigation.

Six individuals, 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 constraints of border walls. While considered efficient against small, crudely constructed tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls are not any match for more sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

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

The type of medication seized could signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that have been usually found in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Arduous drugs, such as heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled by way of official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry big masses at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the USA in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that's busy with massive semitrailers during the day however 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 home that was lately used to stash medication, officers started making traffic stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers full of cocaine, in keeping with a federal felony grievance filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have found about 15 sophisticated tunnels on California’s border with Mexico since 2006.

Many tunnels, including the one introduced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial area, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses provide cowl.

The cross-border passages date again to the early Nineteen Nineties and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton loads of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in 2020 that they are generally present in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the newest tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory despite not understanding how lengthy it had been operating.

“There is no extra light at the end of this narco-tunnel,” stated Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We'll take down each subterranean smuggling route we find to keep illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

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Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.