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 — working concerning the length of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space in the U.S.

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation techniques, electrical energy and reinforced walls, authorities stated. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space the place greater than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been discovered within the last two decades.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what amount of medication, if any, acquired by 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 connection with 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 fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border walls. Whereas thought-about effective against small, crudely constructed tunnels called “gopher holes,” partitions are not any match for more sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

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

The kind of medication seized could signal a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that have been often found in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Arduous medication, reminiscent of heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico because their small dimension and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry large masses at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that is busy with massive semitrailers throughout 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 medicine, officers began making site visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers stuffed with cocaine, in response to a federal prison complaint filed in San Diego.

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

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

Many tunnels, including the one introduced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial space, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cowl.

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 mentioned in 2020 that they are generally found in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to hyperlink the most recent tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not understanding how lengthy it had been operating.

“There isn't any more mild on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We will take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

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

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.