Massive cross-border tunnel discovered 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 ventilation methods, electrical energy and strengthened partitions, authorities mentioned. It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place more than a dozen other refined tunnels have been discovered in the final two decades.

U.S. authorities said it was unknown how lengthy the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of drugs, if any, obtained by way of undetected. They seized 1,762 pounds (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, were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in probably the most fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border walls. While thought-about efficient against small, crudely built tunnels called “gopher holes,” walls are no 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 toes (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 had been typically found in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Arduous medicine, comparable to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled by way of official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small measurement and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. But tunnels give smugglers an advantage of being able to carry big masses at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the US in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that's busy with massive semitrailers through the day however quiet at evening. 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, officers began making visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up bins full of cocaine, in accordance with a federal felony complaint filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no different medicine at the warehouse, however a tunnel opening carved into the cement flooring, 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 area, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cowl.

The cross-border passages date again to the early Nineties and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton loads of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in 2020 that they're typically found in California and Arizona and related to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the most recent tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory despite not figuring out how lengthy it had been working.

“There isn't a extra gentle at the end of this narco-tunnel,” stated Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We will take down every subterranean smuggling route we discover to keep illicit medicine from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

By federal law, U.S. authorities must 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.