Big cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a serious drug smuggling tunnel — working concerning the length of a six soccer 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 air flow programs, electricity and strengthened walls, authorities said. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place more than a dozen other subtle tunnels have been discovered within the final 20 years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of medication, if any, obtained through undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and three.5 kilos (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to the investigation.

Six people, ages 31 to 55, have been 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 partitions. While thought-about efficient towards small, crudely constructed tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls are no 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 toes (1.2 m) in diameter and about six stories deep.

The kind of medicine seized might sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that had been often found in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Exhausting medicine, such as 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 tough to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry enormous masses at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that is busy with giant semitrailers through 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 medicine, officers began making visitors stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers full of cocaine, in response to a federal legal complaint filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have found about 15 refined 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 provide cover.

The cross-border passages date again to the early Nineties 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 found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There isn't any more gentle on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned 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 families 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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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.