Massive cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — operating about the length of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial area in the U.S.

The key passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow programs, electricity and bolstered walls, authorities said. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space where greater than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been discovered in the final two decades.

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

Six people, ages 31 to 55, had 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 constraints of border partitions. While thought-about efficient in opposition to small, crudely built tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” walls aren't any match for more refined 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 tales deep.

The kind of medication seized could sign a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that were usually found in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Laborious medication, akin to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled by official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them tough to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus 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 avenue that's busy with massive semitrailers through 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 medicine, officials began making traffic stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up containers stuffed with cocaine, in accordance with a federal criminal complaint filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no different medicine at the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement ground, federal prosecutors mentioned.

Authorities have discovered about 15 sophisticated 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 back to the early Nineteen 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 generally found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to hyperlink the most recent tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory despite not understanding how long it had been working.

“There isn't a extra mild on the end of this narco-tunnel,” stated Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We'll take down each subterranean smuggling route we find to maintain illicit medicine from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

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

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.