Large cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a significant drug smuggling tunnel — running in regards to the size 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 systems, electricity and bolstered walls, authorities said. It was discovered close to San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place more than a dozen other refined tunnels have been found in the final twenty years.

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

Six folks, ages 31 to 55, were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in one of the crucial fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border walls. While thought of efficient towards small, crudely built tunnels called “gopher holes,” partitions are not any match for extra refined passages that run deeper underground.

The newest passage, found Friday, ran one-third of a mile (532 m) to Tijuana. It was 4 feet (1.2 m) in diameter and about six stories deep.

The type of medication seized might signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that had been usually present in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Onerous drugs, comparable to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled through official border crossings from Mexico because their small size and lack of odor make them tough to detect. However tunnels give smugglers a bonus of with the ability to carry large masses at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a road that's busy with large semitrailers in the course of 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 home that was just lately used to stash medication, officers started making traffic stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers stuffed with cocaine, according to a federal criminal criticism filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no different drugs on the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement ground, federal prosecutors mentioned.

Authorities have discovered about 15 subtle 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 space, 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 stated in 2020 that they're typically found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the latest tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not knowing how long it had been operating.

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

By federal regulation, U.S. authorities should fill the U.S. side of tunnels with concrete after they're discovered.

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.