The zig-zagging passage, which runs from a flophouse in Tijuana to a fenced-in lot advertised as a wooden pallet business, is estimated to be about 2,600 feet — or about nine football fields long. U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said the tunnel was sophisticated, complete with railing and ventilation systems and lighting. On the Tijuana side, the tunnel ended at a large elevator that ascended into a closet in the house. During the investigation, authorities seized 2,242 pounds of cocaine and 14,000 pounds of marijuana suspected of being transported through the tunnel into the United States. It was likely the largest single seizure of cocaine ever related to a tunnel on the California-Mexico border, Duffy said.
It’s the second “super tunnel” to be discovered in recent weeks, Duffy said. In March, authorities uncovered a 415-yard tunnel that connected a restaurant in Mexicali to a house in Calexico. Six men have been arrested in connection with the Otay Mesa discovery, and face various charges including conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and conspiracy to use a border tunnel. The suspects included one U.S. citizen, two Cuban asylum-seekers, and three Mexican nationals. One Mexican national was a legal resident and the other two had cards that allowed them to quickly cross the border.
United States Attorney Laura E. Duffy addresses the media as U.S. authorities shut down a cross-border tunnel with Mexico that is the longest ever in California
Authorities suspect they know which organization was using the tunnel, but declined to say which. They also would not say if the tunnel was related to the one found in Calexico. “The tunnel exit on this side really bears no resemblance to those that we’ve seen before with other super tunnels around which architects and engineers and traffickers really take elaborate steps to conceal the tunnel,” Duffy said at a news conference on the discovery. “ … This tunnel exit is literally a hole in the ground in the middle of this area. I think it fair to say that few would suspect that traffickers were moving multi-ton quantities of cocaine and marijuana in this very unassuming way in full view of the world around them.”
Authorities said U.S. Border Patrol officials received a tip about the tunnel in late 2015 and agents began surveillance of what appeared to be a business near Enrico Fermi and Marconi drives. They soon noticed what looked like practice smuggling runs, Duffy said. Months later, on April 12, agents noticed a white commercial truck deliver a dumpster to the lot and place it on the ground. The next day, agents watched two men start a conversation with someone — either in the dumpster or underneath it. They then loaded the dumpster into the truck, which was driven to a parking lot near Logan Heights.
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Drug tunnel under the border discovered
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Originally Posted by iolo
