Huge cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the invention 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 secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow methods, electrical energy and strengthened walls, authorities said. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area where more than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been discovered in the final 20 years.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what quantity of medication, if any, obtained through 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 connection with the investigation.

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

The tunnel is in probably the most fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border walls. While considered efficient towards small, crudely built tunnels called “gopher holes,” partitions are no match for more refined passages that run deeper underground.

The most recent 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 stories deep.

The type of medicine seized might signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that had been usually found in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Laborious medicine, similar to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled by 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 being able to carry big masses at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that is busy with giant semitrailers during the day however 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 medicine, officials started making traffic stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers stuffed with cocaine, based on a federal criminal criticism 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 announced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial area, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cowl.

The cross-border passages date back to the early Nineteen 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're generally found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the latest tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not realizing how long it had been operating.

“There is no such thing as a extra gentle on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit medicine from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

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

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Related Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.