Large cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the invention of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — operating in regards to the length of a six soccer 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 systems, electricity and strengthened walls, authorities said. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place greater than a dozen different sophisticated tunnels have been found in the last 20 years.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what quantity of drugs, if any, obtained by undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and three.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of heroin in connection with 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 limitations of border walls. Whereas considered efficient against small, crudely built tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” partitions are not 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 feet (1.2 m) in diameter and about six tales deep.

The kind of medicine seized could 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 leisure use in 2019.

Onerous drugs, similar to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled by way of official border crossings from Mexico because their small dimension and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry big loads at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the USA in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that's busy with giant semitrailers during 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 home that was recently used to stash drugs, officials started making site visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up boxes stuffed with cocaine, based on a federal legal grievance filed in San Diego.

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

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

Many tunnels, together with the one introduced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial area, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses provide cover.

The cross-border passages date again to the early Nineties and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton a great deal of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration stated in 2020 that they are usually found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the most recent tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory despite not realizing how lengthy it had been operating.

“There is no more gentle on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” stated Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We will take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover to keep 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 found.

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.