Huge cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the discovery of a major drug smuggling tunnel — running concerning the size 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 methods, electrical energy and strengthened walls, authorities stated. It was found close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place more than a dozen different sophisticated tunnels have been discovered in the final two decades.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of drugs, if any, bought by means of undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to 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 fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border partitions. While thought of efficient against small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls are no match for extra sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

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

The type of drugs seized might sign a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that had been typically found in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Arduous medicine, similar to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled by official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small size and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry huge hundreds at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited america in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that's busy with large 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 home that was not too long ago used to stash drugs, officers began making site visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up packing containers stuffed with cocaine, based on a federal prison grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no different drugs on the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement flooring, federal prosecutors said.

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

Many tunnels, including the one introduced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial area, where 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 a great deal of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration stated in 2020 that they're usually present 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 realizing how lengthy it had been working.

“There is no such thing as a extra gentle on the end of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We will take down every subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit medicine from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

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Related Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.