Huge cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the invention of a serious drug smuggling tunnel — operating concerning the length of a six soccer fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space within the U.S.

The key passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation methods, electrical energy and reinforced walls, authorities said. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place more than a dozen other subtle tunnels have been found in the final two decades.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what amount of medicine, if any, received by means of undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and three.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 vital fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the restrictions of border partitions. While considered effective against small, crudely built tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls are no match for more 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 feet (1.2 m) in diameter and about six stories deep.

The type of drugs seized may signal a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that have been usually present in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Exhausting medicine, corresponding to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled by way of official border crossings from Mexico because their small size and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry big hundreds at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited america in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that's busy with giant 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 home that was recently used to stash medication, officials started making site visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up boxes stuffed with cocaine, in line with a federal prison grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no other medication at the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement ground, federal prosecutors said.

Authorities have discovered 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 cover.

The cross-border passages date back 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're usually present in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the newest tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not understanding how long it had been working.

“There is no more light on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We'll take down each subterranean smuggling route we find to maintain illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

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

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Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.