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

The key passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow programs, electricity and bolstered partitions, authorities stated. It was found close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space the place greater than a dozen other subtle tunnels have been found within the last 20 years.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what quantity of drugs, if any, acquired by undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 kilos (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to the investigation.

Six individuals, ages 31 to 55, have been charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in one of the vital fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border partitions. While considered effective towards small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” partitions aren't any 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 ft (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 often found in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Arduous medicine, comparable to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled through official border crossings from Mexico because their small size and lack of odor make them tough to detect. But tunnels give smugglers an advantage of having the ability to carry large hundreds at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the USA in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that's busy with massive semitrailers throughout 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 home that was just lately used to stash medication, officials began making site visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up packing containers filled with cocaine, based on a federal legal complaint filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no other medication on the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement flooring, federal prosecutors stated.

Authorities have discovered 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, the place 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 stated in 2020 that they are typically 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 despite not knowing how long it had been operating.

“There is no such thing as a more gentle at the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down every subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit drugs 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 found.

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.