Large cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the invention of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — operating concerning the size of a six soccer 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 walls, authorities stated. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place more than a dozen different subtle tunnels have been discovered within the final 20 years.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what amount of medicine, if any, received by undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to the investigation.

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

The tunnel is in one of the most fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the restrictions of border walls. Whereas considered effective against small, crudely built tunnels known as “gopher holes,” partitions aren't any match for extra 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 ft (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 typically found in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Exhausting medicine, such as heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled through official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them tough to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of having the ability to carry large loads at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that is busy with giant semitrailers in the course of the day but quiet at night. 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, officers began making visitors stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up packing containers stuffed with cocaine, according to a federal criminal grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no other drugs at the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement ground, federal prosecutors mentioned.

Authorities have discovered 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, 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 said in 2020 that they are typically found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There isn't a more gentle at the end of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We will take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit medicine from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

By federal legislation, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. facet of tunnels with concrete after they're discovered.

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Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.