Large cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the discovery of a major drug smuggling tunnel — running concerning 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 air flow programs, electricity and reinforced partitions, authorities mentioned. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place more than a dozen other subtle tunnels have been discovered in the last two decades.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been working and what amount of medicine, if any, got via undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of heroin in connection with the investigation.

Six people, ages 31 to 55, have 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 restrictions of border walls. Whereas thought of efficient in opposition to small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls are no match for extra sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

The newest 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 kind of medicine seized could signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that have been often present in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Exhausting drugs, corresponding to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled by way of official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small measurement and lack of odor make them tough to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of with the ability to carry enormous loads at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that's busy with massive semitrailers in the course of the day however quiet at night. On Monday, armed guards watched over a small shaft with a ladder that descended into the tunnel.

After staking out a house that was not too long ago used to stash medication, officials began making visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up packing containers filled with cocaine, in accordance with a federal felony grievance filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have found about 15 sophisticated tunnels on California’s border with Mexico since 2006.

Many tunnels, together with the one announced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial space, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses provide cowl.

The cross-border passages date back to the early 1990s and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton a great deal of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in 2020 that they are usually found in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There isn't a more gentle on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” stated Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer 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 regulation, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. facet of tunnels with concrete after they're discovered.

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Associated Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.