Large 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 — running about the size 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 air flow systems, electrical energy and reinforced walls, authorities stated. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space the place greater than a dozen other refined tunnels have been discovered within the final twenty years.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what amount of medicine, if any, acquired through undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of heroin in connection with the investigation.

Six people, ages 31 to 55, were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in one of the fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the restrictions of border partitions. Whereas considered efficient against small, crudely constructed tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” walls aren't any match for extra subtle passages that run deeper underground.

The newest 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 kind of medication seized could signal a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that had been usually present in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Exhausting medication, similar to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled through official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small size and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. But tunnels give smugglers an advantage of with the ability to carry enormous hundreds at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that's busy with massive semitrailers throughout the day however quiet at night. On Monday, armed guards watched over a small shaft with a ladder that descended into the tunnel.

After staking out a house that was not too long ago used to stash drugs, officers started making traffic stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up boxes stuffed with cocaine, in line with a federal criminal complaint filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have found about 15 subtle 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, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses provide cover.

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

Authorities declined to hyperlink the latest tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory despite not realizing how long it had been operating.

“There is no more mild at the finish of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of California. “We will take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover 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. aspect of tunnels with concrete after they are discovered.

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Related Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.