Huge 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 — working in regards to the length of a six soccer fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial area within the U.S.

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation systems, electricity and bolstered partitions, authorities stated. It was found close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area 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 working and what quantity of medicine, if any, got via 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, have been charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in some of the fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border walls. While thought-about efficient towards small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” partitions are no match for extra sophisticated 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 stories deep.

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

Arduous medicine, comparable to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled by means of official border crossings from Mexico because their small dimension and lack of odor make them tough to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of being able to carry huge hundreds at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited america in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that is busy with giant semitrailers in the course of the day however 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 medicine, officers started making visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up packing containers filled with cocaine, in keeping with a federal criminal complaint filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no other medicine at the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement flooring, federal prosecutors stated.

Authorities have found about 15 subtle 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 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 stated in 2020 that they're usually found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the most recent tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory despite not figuring out how long it had been working.

“There is no extra light at the finish 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 medication from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

By federal legislation, 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.