Massive cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the invention of a major drug smuggling tunnel — working 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 air flow programs, electricity and bolstered walls, authorities stated. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place more than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been discovered within the final 20 years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what amount of drugs, if any, bought by way of 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 reference to the investigation.

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

The tunnel is in one of the most fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border partitions. Whereas thought of effective against small, crudely built tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls aren't any match for more subtle passages that run deeper underground.

The most recent passage, found 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 type of medicine seized may signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that had been usually found in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Hard medication, corresponding to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled via official border crossings from Mexico because their small size and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of being able to carry huge masses 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 time. 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 drugs, officers started making visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers stuffed with cocaine, according to a federal prison grievance filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have found 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 Nineties 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 are typically found in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the most recent tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not figuring out how long it had been operating.

“There is no more mild on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We'll take down each subterranean smuggling route we find to keep illicit medicine from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

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

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.