Big cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the invention of a serious drug smuggling tunnel — running about the size of a six football 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 air flow programs, electricity and bolstered walls, authorities mentioned. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place greater than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been discovered within the final two decades.

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

Six folks, ages 31 to 55, had been 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 considered effective against small, crudely built tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” partitions 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 stories deep.

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

Arduous medication, such as heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled through official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small measurement and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of having the ability to carry huge hundreds at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that is busy with giant semitrailers throughout 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 just lately used to stash medicine, officers started making traffic stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up packing containers filled with cocaine, in keeping with a federal prison grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no other medicine on the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement flooring, federal prosecutors mentioned.

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 area, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses provide cowl.

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

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

“There is no more light on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down each subterranean smuggling route we discover to maintain illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

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Associated Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.