‘Narco-tunnel’ connecting San Diego and Tijuana found during $25M drug bust
Global News
The tunnel was the length of six football fields, six storeys deep and included a railway, ventilation systems, electricity and reinforced walls.
U.S. law enforcement discovered a massive drug smuggling tunnel — the length of six football fields — running under the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday.
The sophisticated passageway connected Tijuana, Mexico with a warehouse in San Diego, and included a railway, ventilation systems, electricity and reinforced walls, according to authorities. The tunnel ran 1,744 feet, around a third of a mile, and was 61 feet deep, about six storeys.
Law enforcement is unsure of how long the tunnel was operating but seized almost 2,000 pounds of cocaine, 165 pounds of meth and 3.5 pounds of heroin in connection with the investigation, valued at around US$25 million.
Six Californian residents, ages 31 to 55, were arrested and have been charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine. If found guilty, they face life in prison and up to a US$1 million fine.
In the last two decades, more than a dozen well-equipped tunnels have been discovered in the Otay Mesa border area in San Diego, where this most recent tunnel was found.
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U.S. law enforcement discovered the massive tunnel after staking out a nearby home that was used to stash drugs. Officials began making traffic stops of vehicles that had been to the house and discovered they were also connected to a warehouse called Amistad Park, according to a federal criminal complaint.
“In a span of a few hours, agents watched five vehicles come and go from the stash house and this warehouse, we allege that the defendants were driving into the garage and loading or dropping off cardboard boxes full of drugs to further the movement or distribution of drugs throughout the United States, the federal agents were watching the whole time,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman told ABC affiliate KGTV.
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