Massive cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the discovery of a major drug smuggling tunnel — operating about the length of a six football 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 ventilation methods, electrical energy and strengthened walls, authorities said. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place greater than a dozen different refined tunnels have been found within the final twenty years.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how long the tunnel had been working and what quantity of medicine, if any, got via undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and three.5 kilos (1.6 kg) of heroin in connection with the investigation.

Six people, ages 31 to 55, were 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 of efficient in opposition to small, crudely constructed tunnels called “gopher holes,” partitions are no 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 ft (1.2 m) in diameter and about six stories deep.

The type of medication seized could sign a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that have been often present in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Laborious medicine, such as heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled by means of official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small size and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry big masses at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that is 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 house that was lately used to stash medication, officers started making visitors stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up boxes stuffed with cocaine, in keeping with a federal legal complaint filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no different medicine at the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement ground, federal prosecutors said.

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

Many tunnels, together with the one announced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial area, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cowl.

The cross-border passages date back to the early Nineteen 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 usually found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

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

“There isn't any extra gentle on the end of this narco-tunnel,” stated Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover to keep illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

By federal law, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. side of tunnels with concrete after they're found.

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Associated Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.