US authorities on Monday announced the discovery of a major drug smuggling tunnel from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial area in the US.
The secret passage from Tijuana to San Diego featured rail and ventilation systems, electricity and reinforced walls, authorities said.
It was discovered near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing in an area where more than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been found in the past two decades.
Photo: Reuters
US authorities said it was unknown how long the tunnel had been operating and what amount of drugs, if any, got through undetected.
They seized 799kg of cocaine, 75kg of meth and 1.6kg of heroin in connection with the investigation.
Six people, ages 31 to 55, were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine.
Photo: AP
All are residents of southern California.
The latest passage, discovered on Friday, ran 532m to Tijuana. It was 1.2m in diameter and about six stories deep.
The type of drugs seized might signal a shift from the multi-tonne loads of marijuana that were often found in discoveries before California legalized pot for recreational use in 2019.
Hard drugs, such as heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl, are typically 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 being able to rapidly carry huge loads.
The tunnel exited the US 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 home that was recently used to stash drugs, officials began making traffic stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, turning up boxes full of cocaine, a federal criminal complaint filed in San Diego said.
They raided the properties — finding no other drugs at the warehouse, but a tunnel opening carved into the cement floor, federal prosecutors said.
Authorities have found about 15 sophisticated tunnels on California’s border with Mexico since 2006.
“There is no more light at the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, US attorney for the Southern District of California. “We will take down every subterranean smuggling route we find to keep illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”
By federal law, US authorities must fill the US side of such tunnels with concrete after they are discovered.
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