Large cross-border tunnel found linking Tijuana, San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities on Monday introduced the invention of a significant 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 secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation techniques, electrical energy and reinforced walls, authorities said. It was found near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area the place greater than a dozen different refined tunnels have been found within the final two decades.

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

Six individuals, ages 31 to 55, had been charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are Southern California residents.

The tunnel is in one of the vital fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the constraints of border partitions. Whereas thought of efficient against small, crudely built tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls are no match for more subtle passages that run deeper underground.

The latest 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 type of medication seized could signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that were usually found in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.

Laborious medicine, equivalent to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled by way of official border crossings from Mexico as a result of their small size and lack of odor make them troublesome to detect. However tunnels give smugglers an advantage of having the ability to carry huge masses at lightning velocity.

The tunnel exited the United States in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that's busy with massive 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 home that was not too long ago used to stash medication, officers started making visitors stops of autos that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up bins stuffed with cocaine, in response to a federal prison criticism filed in San Diego.

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

Authorities have found about 15 refined tunnels on California’s border with Mexico since 2006.

Many tunnels, together with the one introduced Monday, are in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial space, where clay-like soil is conducive to digging and warehouses provide cowl.

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 said in 2020 that they are usually present in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to link the newest tunnel to any specific cartel. They claimed victory regardless of not realizing how long it had been working.

“There isn't any extra gentle at the end of this narco-tunnel,” mentioned Randy Grossman, U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of California. “We are going to take down each subterranean smuggling route we find to keep illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

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Related Press author Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.