Massive cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a serious drug smuggling tunnel — operating concerning the size of a six football 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 ventilation systems, electrical energy and bolstered walls, authorities said. It was found close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area where more than a dozen different subtle tunnels have been found within the final twenty years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what amount of drugs, if any, obtained via 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 individuals, ages 31 to 55, were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in one of the crucial fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border partitions. Whereas thought of effective in opposition to small, crudely constructed tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” partitions aren't any match for more sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

The latest 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 stories deep.

The type of medicine seized may sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that were typically present in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Onerous drugs, resembling heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled via 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 large hundreds at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that is busy with massive semitrailers during the day but 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 recently used to stash drugs, officers started making site visitors stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers stuffed with cocaine, in accordance with a federal legal grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no other medicine at the warehouse, however 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 introduced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial area, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cowl.

The cross-border passages date again to the early 1990s and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton loads of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration stated in 2020 that they are usually present in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There is no more light at the end of this narco-tunnel,” said 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 drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

By federal regulation, U.S. authorities should fill the U.S. facet of tunnels with concrete after they are discovered.

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Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.