US authorities have announced the discovery of a drug-trafficking tunnel, some six football fields long, between Tijuana, Mexico, and a warehouse in an industrial estate in San Diego, California. “There is no more light at the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of California, “we will eliminate any underground smuggling routes we find to prevent illicit drugs from reaching our own. roads and destroy our families and our communities “.
Since 2006, 15 tunnels have been discovered on the border between Mexico and California. The secret passage was equipped with rail and ventilation systems, electricity and reinforced walls, authorities said. It was discovered near the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego, in a clayey area conducive to excavation. It is not known how long it has been in operation and what amount of drug has passed through there. The investigations of the authorities led to the seizure of 799 kg of cocaine, 75 kg of methamphetamine and 1.6 kg of heroin. Six people, aged 31 to 55, were accused of conspiring to distribute cocaine. All are resident of Southern California.
The passage is 532 meters long, has a diameter of 1.2 meters and a depth of about six floors. 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, but the tunnels offer traffickers the advantage of being able to transport huge loads with great speed. The tunnel exited into an anonymous warehouse called Amistad Park in San Diego, on a street traversed by large trailers, busy during the day but quiet at night. After monitoring a house, they began to stop the traffic of vehicles that had been there or in a warehouse near the border, discovering boxes full of cocaine. They broke into the property, finding no more drugs in the warehouse but an opening cut into the concrete floor. Under federal law, US authorities must fill the American side of the tunnels with concrete once they are discovered.