Big cross-border tunnel discovered linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the discovery of a major drug smuggling tunnel — running concerning the length of a six football fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial space within the U.S.

The key passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow methods, electrical energy and reinforced partitions, authorities stated. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an space where more than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been discovered within the final two decades.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what amount of drugs, if any, bought via undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 kilos (75 kg) of meth and three.5 kilos (1.6 kg) of heroin in connection with the investigation.

Six folks, ages 31 to 55, had been 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 walls. Whereas thought-about effective against small, crudely built tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls are no 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 feet (1.2 m) in diameter and about six tales deep.

The type of medicine seized could sign a shift from the multi-ton a great deal of marijuana that were usually found in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Onerous medication, resembling heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are usually smuggled by way of official border crossings from Mexico because their small measurement and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. But tunnels give smugglers a bonus of having the ability to carry large masses at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a avenue that's busy with massive semitrailers throughout 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 just lately used to stash medication, officials started making site visitors stops of automobiles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up containers full of cocaine, according to a federal prison complaint filed in San Diego.

They raided the properties — finding no other medicine on the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement floor, federal prosecutors mentioned.

Authorities have discovered 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 area, the place clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses present cowl.

The cross-border passages date again to the early Nineteen 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're typically present 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 operating.

“There is no such thing as a more gentle at the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of California. “We will take down every subterranean smuggling route we discover to keep illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”

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

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.