Massive cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the invention of a major drug smuggling tunnel — operating in regards to the size 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 ventilation methods, electrical energy and bolstered partitions, authorities mentioned. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space the place more than a dozen different subtle tunnels have been discovered within the final 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 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 individuals, ages 31 to 55, were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in one of the crucial fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border partitions. While thought of effective against small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls are no match for more subtle passages that run deeper underground.

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

The type of medicine seized could sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that had been usually found in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Laborious drugs, similar to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled by official border crossings from Mexico because their small dimension and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of with the ability to carry large masses at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that's busy with massive semitrailers through 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 drugs, officers started making visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up bins full of cocaine, in line with a federal prison grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no other medication on the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement ground, federal prosecutors said.

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 space, where 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 loads of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration mentioned in 2020 that they are typically present in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There isn't any more light on the end of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We will take down every subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

By federal law, U.S. authorities should 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.