Huge cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

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

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation systems, electrical energy and strengthened walls, authorities mentioned. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space the place greater than a dozen other subtle tunnels have been discovered in the final twenty years.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of drugs, if any, acquired by way of 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 reference to the investigation.

Six individuals, 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 constraints of border walls. Whereas considered efficient in opposition to small, crudely constructed tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” walls are not any match for more subtle passages that run deeper underground.

The newest 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 tales deep.

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

Onerous drugs, akin to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small size and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of with the ability to carry enormous masses at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that's busy with large semitrailers in the course of the day but quiet at evening. 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 medicine, officers started making visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up packing containers stuffed with cocaine, based on a federal criminal criticism filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no different medication on the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement ground, federal prosecutors mentioned.

Authorities have discovered about 15 subtle tunnels on California’s border with Mexico since 2006.

Many tunnels, including the one announced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial area, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses provide 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 said in 2020 that they're usually found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There is no more light at 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 find to maintain illicit medicine from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

By federal legislation, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. side of tunnels with concrete after they are discovered.

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.