Huge cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a serious drug smuggling tunnel — running about the length of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space in the U.S.

The key passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation 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 other refined tunnels have been discovered in the last two decades.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what amount of medicine, if any, bought by way of 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 reference to the investigation.

Six folks, ages 31 to 55, were 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 constraints of border partitions. Whereas thought-about effective against small, crudely built tunnels known as “gopher holes,” partitions are not any match for extra subtle passages that run deeper underground.

The newest 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 kind of drugs seized might signal a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that had been typically found in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Hard drugs, reminiscent of heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small dimension and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus of having the ability to carry huge loads at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the USA in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that's busy with large semitrailers throughout 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 lately used to stash drugs, officials started making traffic stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up packing containers full of cocaine, in line with a federal felony grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no different medicine at the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement floor, federal prosecutors stated.

Authorities have discovered about 15 sophisticated 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 again to the early Nineteen 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 related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

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

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

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Associated Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.