Large cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a major drug smuggling tunnel — operating in regards to 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 techniques, 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 refined tunnels have been found in the final 20 years.

U.S. authorities stated it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been working and what amount of medication, if any, acquired through undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and three.5 kilos (1.6 kg) of heroin in reference to the investigation.

Six people, ages 31 to 55, were 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 walls. While thought-about effective towards small, crudely constructed tunnels referred to as “gopher holes,” partitions aren't any match for extra subtle 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 tales deep.

The kind of medicine seized could sign a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that were usually present in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Onerous medicine, corresponding to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled by official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them difficult to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of having the ability to carry big hundreds at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue 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 home that was not too long ago used to stash medication, officials began making visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up packing containers stuffed with cocaine, in response to a federal criminal grievance filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no different medication at the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement floor, federal prosecutors said.

Authorities have found about 15 refined 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, where 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 loads of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration mentioned in 2020 that they are usually present in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to hyperlink the latest tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not understanding how lengthy it had been working.

“There is no extra gentle on the end 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 discover to maintain illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

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

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Related Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.