Massive cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the discovery of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — running about the length of a six soccer fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space in the U.S.

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow systems, electrical energy and reinforced partitions, authorities mentioned. 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 within the final two decades.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of medicine, if any, acquired by means of 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, have been 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 constraints of border walls. While thought-about efficient against small, crudely built tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” partitions are not any match for extra refined passages that run deeper underground.

The most recent passage, found 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 drugs seized might sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that have been usually present in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Onerous drugs, resembling heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled by official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of having the ability to carry huge hundreds at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited america in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that's busy with large semitrailers through 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 house that was not too long ago used to stash medication, officers started making site visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up bins full of cocaine, in keeping with a federal legal complaint 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 refined tunnels on California’s border with Mexico since 2006.

Many tunnels, including the one announced 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 Nineties and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton a great deal of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in 2020 that they're usually found 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 regardless of not knowing how long it had been operating.

“There is no such thing as a more mild on the end of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down every subterranean smuggling route we discover to keep illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

By federal law, U.S. authorities should fill the U.S. side of tunnels with concrete after they are found.

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Related Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.