Big cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the invention of a major drug smuggling tunnel — working about the length of a six football 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 ventilation programs, electrical energy and strengthened walls, authorities stated. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area where more than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been discovered within the final two decades.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of drugs, if any, bought by way of undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 kilos (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 crucial fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border partitions. While considered efficient against small, crudely constructed tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” partitions are not any match for extra 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 tales deep.

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

Onerous medication, akin to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico because their small dimension and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of with the ability to carry big masses at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the USA in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that is busy with giant semitrailers during the day but 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 just lately used to stash medicine, officials started making traffic stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up bins full of cocaine, in accordance with a federal prison complaint filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no different drugs on the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement floor, federal prosecutors mentioned.

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, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses provide cover.

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

Authorities declined to hyperlink the latest tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not figuring out how long it had been working.

“There is no such thing as a more light 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 every subterranean smuggling route we discover to keep illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

By federal law, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. aspect of tunnels with concrete after they are discovered.

___=

Related Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.