Massive cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the discovery of a serious drug smuggling tunnel — operating about the size of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial area within the U.S.

The key passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow techniques, electrical energy and bolstered partitions, authorities mentioned. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place greater than a dozen different subtle tunnels have been found in the last two decades.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what quantity of medicine, if any, obtained by means of undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 kilos (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to 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 vital fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border partitions. While thought-about efficient in opposition to small, crudely constructed tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls aren't any match for extra sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

The latest 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 tales deep.

The kind of medication seized might sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that have been typically present in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Exhausting drugs, similar to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled by official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. But tunnels give smugglers an advantage of being able to carry large hundreds at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited america in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that's busy with giant 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 recently used to stash medication, officers began making traffic stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers stuffed with cocaine, according to a federal legal criticism filed in San Diego.

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

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, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cover.

The cross-border passages date again 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 are usually found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to hyperlink the latest tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not understanding how long it had been working.

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

By federal law, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. facet of tunnels with concrete after they are found.

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Associated Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.