Massive cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced 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 in the U.S.

The key passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation systems, electrical energy and bolstered partitions, authorities mentioned. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space the place greater than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been found in the final two decades.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of medication, if any, got via 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 folks, ages 31 to 55, have been 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. While thought-about efficient in opposition to small, crudely built tunnels known as “gopher holes,” partitions are not any match for extra refined passages that run deeper underground.

The newest 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 type of drugs seized might signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that have been typically present in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Hard medicine, corresponding to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled by official border crossings from Mexico because their small dimension and lack of odor make them tough to detect. But tunnels give smugglers an advantage of having the ability to carry big masses at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited america in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that's busy with massive semitrailers during the day but quiet at night time. 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, officers began making site visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up boxes stuffed with cocaine, in line with a federal felony complaint filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no different medicine at the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement flooring, 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 area, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cowl.

The cross-border passages date back to the early Nineties and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton a great deal of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration stated in 2020 that they're typically found in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There isn't any extra light on the end of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

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

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Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.