Underground drug smuggling tunnel from Tijuana to Otay Mesa found on US-Mexico border | US News
US officials have discovered an underground tunnel the length of five football fields used to smuggle drugs from Mexico to a warehouse in California.
It is not known how long the secret passage with rails, ventilation, electricity and reinforced walls has been in operation.
Investigators found the tunnel after locating a house used to store drugs in the Mexican border city of Tijuana and stopping vehicles near a warehouse in Otay Mesa, south of San Diego.
According to a federal criminal complaint in San Diego, they shipped crates full of cocaine.
The warehouse is on a street that’s busy during the day but quiet at night, with armed guards guarding a small shaft with ladders leading down to the tunnel.
Agents raided the warehouse and found no drugs there other than a tunnel dug into the cement floor.
The walkway, discovered last week, runs a third of a mile (532m) to Tijuana and is 4ft (1.2m) wide.
Six people from Southern California, ages 31 to 55, were charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
Authorities seized 799kg of cocaine, 75kg of meth and 1.6kg of heroin to serve the investigation.
“There is no light at the end of this drug tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, a prosecutor for the Southern District of California.
“We will take down every underground smuggling route we find to stop illegal drugs from spilling onto the streets and destroying our families and communities.”
The opening of the aisle was found in a warehouse in California. Photo: AP
The passage was discovered in an area where more than a dozen other elaborate tunnels have been found over the past two decades.
Authorities have not linked the latest tunnel to any particular cartel.
