Big cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a serious drug smuggling tunnel — running about the size of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space within the U.S.

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow techniques, electricity and reinforced walls, authorities mentioned. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space where greater than a dozen different subtle tunnels have been found within the last twenty years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what amount of medicine, if any, got by way of 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, 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 partitions. While thought of effective towards small, crudely built tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls aren't any match for more sophisticated 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 stories deep.

The kind of medicine seized may signal a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that have been typically present in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Onerous medicine, akin to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small dimension and lack of odor make them tough to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of having the ability to carry big loads at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that's busy with large 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 recently used to stash medication, officials started making traffic stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up packing containers stuffed with cocaine, in response to a federal prison criticism filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have found about 15 refined 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 cowl.

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're usually 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 knowing how long it had been operating.

“There is no extra mild at the finish of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney 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 households and communities.”

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

___=

Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.