Big cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the invention of a major drug smuggling tunnel — running concerning the size of a six football 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 techniques, electrical energy and reinforced partitions, authorities said. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space where more than a dozen other refined tunnels have been discovered in the final 20 years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of medication, if any, bought by undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and three.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 restrictions of border partitions. Whereas thought-about effective towards small, crudely constructed tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls are no match for more subtle passages that run deeper underground.

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

The kind of medicine seized could signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that have been typically found in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Arduous medication, reminiscent of heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico because their small dimension and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. But tunnels give smugglers an advantage of being able to carry enormous loads at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that is busy with large 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 recently used to stash drugs, officials began making visitors stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers filled with cocaine, in keeping with a federal criminal criticism filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no other medication on the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement floor, federal prosecutors said.

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 space, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present 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 said in 2020 that they are usually present in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There isn't any extra mild at the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of California. “We'll take down every subterranean smuggling route we find to maintain illicit medication 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're found.

___=

Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.