Big cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the invention of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — working about the size 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 systems, electrical energy and reinforced partitions, authorities stated. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area where more than a dozen other refined tunnels have been discovered within the last 20 years.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what quantity of drugs, if any, received via undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (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 some of the fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the restrictions of border partitions. While considered efficient towards small, crudely constructed tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” partitions aren't any match for extra subtle passages that run deeper underground.

The most recent passage, discovered Friday, ran one-third of a mile (532 m) to Tijuana. It was 4 ft (1.2 m) in diameter and about six tales deep.

The kind of medicine seized might sign a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that have been typically found in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Hard medicine, comparable to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled through official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them tough to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry huge masses at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that is busy with large semitrailers in the course of the day however 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 medication, officials started making traffic stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up packing containers filled with cocaine, according to a federal criminal criticism 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 stated.

Authorities have found about 15 sophisticated tunnels on California’s border with Mexico since 2006.

Many tunnels, together with the one announced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial space, 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 a great deal of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration mentioned in 2020 that they are generally present in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the most recent tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory despite not knowing how lengthy it had been operating.

“There is no extra mild on the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of California. “We'll take down each subterranean smuggling route we find to maintain illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

___=

Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.