Huge cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the invention of a major drug smuggling tunnel — running about the size of a six soccer 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, electrical energy and reinforced partitions, authorities stated. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place more than a dozen different refined tunnels have been discovered within the final twenty years.

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

Six individuals, 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 limitations of border partitions. Whereas considered effective towards small, crudely built tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls aren't any match for more subtle 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 drugs seized may signal a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that had been typically found in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Hard drugs, similar to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are sometimes smuggled through 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 with the ability to carry large masses at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the USA in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that is busy with large semitrailers during the day but quiet at night. On Monday, armed guards watched over a small shaft with a ladder that descended into the tunnel.

After staking out a house that was recently used to stash medication, officers began making visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up packing containers filled with cocaine, based on a federal prison criticism filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — discovering no different medicine at the warehouse, however 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, 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 present cowl.

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

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

“There is no such thing as a extra mild on the finish of this narco-tunnel,” stated Randy Grossman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down every subterranean smuggling route we find to maintain 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're found.

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Related Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.