Huge cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the discovery of a serious drug smuggling tunnel — operating concerning the length 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 ventilation methods, electricity and strengthened walls, authorities mentioned. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space where more than a dozen different subtle tunnels have been found within the final two decades.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been working and what quantity of medicine, if any, bought by way 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 fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border partitions. Whereas thought of efficient 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 toes (1.2 m) in diameter and about six stories deep.

The kind of drugs seized could sign a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that had been typically found in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Onerous drugs, equivalent to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled through official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small dimension and lack of odor make them tough to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of being able to carry large masses at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited america in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that's busy with giant semitrailers in the course of the day however quiet at night time. 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 started making traffic stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers filled with cocaine, based on a federal felony complaint filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no different drugs at the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement flooring, federal prosecutors mentioned.

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

Many tunnels, together with the one introduced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial area, the place 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 a great deal of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration mentioned in 2020 that they're generally present in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the newest tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory despite not realizing how long it had been operating.

“There isn't any extra light on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We will take down every subterranean smuggling route we find to maintain illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.