Large 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 — working concerning the size of a six soccer 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 programs, electrical energy and reinforced walls, authorities stated. It was found 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 final two decades.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of drugs, if any, obtained through undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and 3.5 kilos (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to the investigation.

Six individuals, 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 limitations of border partitions. While thought of efficient towards small, crudely built tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” partitions are no match for extra refined 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 tales deep.

The kind of medication seized may signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that have been typically found in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Onerous medication, reminiscent of heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled via 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 having the ability to carry large hundreds at lightning speed.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that's busy with giant semitrailers during 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 drugs, officers started making visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up containers full of cocaine, in response to a federal prison complaint filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have found 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 space, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses provide 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 link the latest tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory despite not knowing how lengthy it had been working.

“There is no extra mild at the finish of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down each subterranean smuggling route we find to maintain illicit medicine from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

By federal legislation, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. facet of tunnels with concrete after they're discovered.

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Associated Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.