Large cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the discovery of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — operating about the length of a six soccer fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space in the U.S.

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow systems, electricity and reinforced partitions, authorities said. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space where greater than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been found within the last twenty years.

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

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

The tunnel is in probably the most fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the restrictions of border partitions. Whereas thought-about efficient in opposition to small, crudely constructed tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” walls are not any match for more sophisticated passages that run deeper underground.

The most recent passage, discovered Friday, ran one-third of a mile (532 m) to Tijuana. It was 4 ft (1.2 m) in diameter and about six tales deep.

The type of medicine seized might sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that have been often present in discoveries before California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Arduous drugs, resembling heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled by official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small size and lack of odor make them tough to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of being able to carry huge loads at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that is busy with massive semitrailers during 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 home that was recently used to stash medicine, officers began making site visitors stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up bins full of cocaine, in line with a federal legal complaint filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have discovered about 15 refined tunnels on California’s border with Mexico since 2006.

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

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

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

“There is no such thing as a extra light at the end of this narco-tunnel,” stated Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down every subterranean smuggling route we find to maintain illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

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Associated Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.