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US discovers huge hi-tech Mexican drug-smuggling tunnel US shuts Mexican drug smugglers' cross-border 'super tunnel'
(about 5 hours later)
A smuggling tunnel running from Tijuana in Mexico to San Diego in the United States, equipped with lighting, ventilation and an electric rail system, has been uncovered by US authorities. It is one of the most sophisticated secret passages to be discovered along the US-Mexico border. The US authorities have shut a sophisticated drug smuggling tunnel recently dug under the US-Mexican border. The tunnel – said to be 2.4 miles long – linked a warehouse in Tijuana to another in San Diego, California.
Three men who authorities claim worked as drivers have been charged with possession of marijuana and cocaine with intent to distribute. They face prison sentences of between 10 years and life if convicted. Derek Benner, head of Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego said it was equipped with lights, ventilation and an electric rail system. Benner said the zig zag route suggested the builders had gone off course. The tunnel runs about 10.7m (35 feet) below the surface and is about 1.2m high and 90cm wide.
Authorities who found the underground network seized 8.5 tonnes of marijuana and 148kg (327lb) of cocaine. The tunnel – dug 11 metres (35 feet) underground, 1.3 metres high and 1 metre wide – was shut down before the drugs could be distributed. Three people were arrested and more than eight tonnes of marijuana and 147kg of cocaine in connection with the "super tunnel" they said had been closed before it was used for smuggling.
The tunnel, which zigzags the length of nearly six football fields, links warehouses in Tijuana and San Diego's Otay Mesa – an industrial area filled with nondescript warehouses, convenient for loading trucks with drugs. The tunnel was discovered by the San Diego Tunnel Task Force. The unit, set up about five years ago, had reportedly put the warehouse on the US side under surveillance after learning about the purchase of drills and other construction equipment in August and September.
Federal agents had the San Diego warehouse under surveillance after being tipped off by an informant who told them operators bought drills and other construction equipment in August and September. Mexican cartels have become more dependent on tunnels, small boats and light aircraft in recent years as the fences along the 2,000-mile frontier become higher, stronger and more extensive.
As US border security has heightened on land, Mexican drug cartels have turned to ultralight aircraft, small fishing boats and tunnels to smuggle drugs. More than 75 underground passages have been discovered along the border since 2008, designed largely to smuggle marijuana. "These cartels have spent years and tens of millions of dollars trying to create a secret underworld of passages so they can move large quantities of drugs," Laura Duffy, the United States attorney for the San Diego region told reporters.
The tunnels are concentrated along the border in California and Arizona but San Diego is particularly popular because its clay-like soil is easy to excavate. The tunnel is the eighth major passage discovered in San Diego since 2006, a period during which Mexico's Sinaloa cartel has solidified its hold on the prized smuggling corridor but according to authorities, is the first in the San Diego area that was found to be used for cocaine. This particular tunnel was reportedly associated with the Sinaloa drug cartel that is headed by Mexico's most infamous and elusive kingpin, Joaquín 'El Chapo' Archivaldo Guzmán Loera. A similar tunnel connecting Tijuana and San Diego discovered two years ago, connected with the seizure of 32 tonnes of marijuana, was also associated with the Sinaloa cartel. US autorities say they have discovered more than 75 tunnels crossing the border since 2008, concentrated in California and Arizona.
Some of the largest tunnels have been discovered following central Mexico's marijuana October harvest, which challenges drug cartels to quickly get their product to consumers. The San Diego/Tijuana area is a popular place for tunnels because of the ease of digging through the clay-like soil of the area, as well as the existence of areas on both sides of the border filled with nondescript warehouses that help hide both construction and loading and unloading activities.
In November 2011, authorities found a 500-metre tunnel that resulted in seizures of 32 tonnes of marijuana on both sides of the border, with 26 tonnes found on the US side, accounting for one of the largest busts in US history. The tunnel was equipped with electric rail cars, lighting and ventilation and planks lining the floor. In other parts of the border, cartels have adapted underground drainage tunnels.
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