Big 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 — running concerning the length of a six soccer fields — from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial area in the U.S.

The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and air flow techniques, electricity and reinforced partitions, authorities said. It was found close to 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 twenty years.

U.S. authorities mentioned it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what quantity of drugs, if any, received through undetected. They seized 1,762 kilos (799 kg) of cocaine, 165 pounds (75 kg) of meth and three.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 crucial fortified stretches of the border, illustrating the limitations of border partitions. While considered effective in opposition to small, crudely built tunnels known as “gopher holes,” walls are not any match for more refined passages that run deeper underground.

The most recent passage, found 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 signal a shift from the multi-ton loads of marijuana that were often found in discoveries earlier than California legalized pot for leisure use in 2019.

Hard medication, comparable to heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically smuggled via 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 loads at lightning pace.

The tunnel exited the USA in a nondescript warehouse named “Amistad Park” on a street that is busy with massive semitrailers during 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 house that was not too long ago used to stash drugs, officers started making site visitors stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse close to the border, turning up containers filled with cocaine, according to a federal felony complaint filed in San Diego.

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

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

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

The cross-border passages date again to the early 1990s and have been used primarily to smuggle multi-ton loads of marijuana. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration stated in 2020 that they are usually present in California and Arizona and associated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Authorities declined to hyperlink the newest tunnel to any particular cartel. They claimed victory despite not figuring out how long it had been working.

“There is no more light on the end 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 discover to maintain illicit medication from reaching our streets and destroying our households and communities.”

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

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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed.