Massive cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

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

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow techniques, electricity and strengthened walls, authorities said. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space the place greater than a dozen different refined tunnels have been found within the final two decades.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what amount of medication, if any, obtained by way of undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 kilos (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to the investigation.

Six folks, ages 31 to 55, had been charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in one of the fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border partitions. Whereas considered effective against small, crudely constructed tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” partitions aren't any match for extra subtle passages that run deeper underground.

The latest passage, discovered 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 kind of drugs seized may sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that have been usually present in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Arduous medicine, akin to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small dimension and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus of having the ability to carry enormous masses at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that is busy with large 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 house that was lately used to stash drugs, officials started making traffic stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up packing containers stuffed with cocaine, in line with a federal criminal grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no other medicine at the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement floor, federal prosecutors stated.

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 present 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 stated in 2020 that they're generally present in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the latest tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory despite not understanding how long it had been operating.

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

By federal regulation, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. facet of tunnels with concrete after they're discovered.

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.