Massive 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 — operating about the size of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial area in the U.S.

The key passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow systems, electricity and strengthened partitions, authorities said. 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 final two decades.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of medication, if any, received 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 reference to the investigation.

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

The tunnel is in some of the fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border partitions. Whereas thought-about efficient against small, crudely constructed tunnels known as “gopher holes,” partitions are no match for extra sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

The latest 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 drugs seized may sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that were often present in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Onerous medicine, corresponding 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 difficult to detect. But tunnels give smugglers an advantage of with the ability to carry enormous masses at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited the USA in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that's busy with massive semitrailers through 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 house that was recently used to stash medication, officials started making site visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up bins stuffed with cocaine, in accordance with a federal felony criticism filed in San Diego.

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

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

Many tunnels, including the one introduced 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 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 generally present in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There is no such thing as a extra gentle at the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We'll take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

By federal regulation, U.S. authorities must 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.