By Aaron Miller-
US officials have discovered an underground tunnel about the length of five football pitches used to smuggle drugs from Mexico to a warehouse in California.
The Department of Homeland Security is investigating the tunnel.
Authorities said the tunnel was discovered as officials began sweeping the area for drugs. They conducted drug raids on several homes where drugs were known to be stashed and then checked the warehouse, where they discovered the tunnel.
At least 15 of these sophisticated tunnels across the border have been discovered since 2006, officials said.
Authorities declined to link the latest tunnel to any specific cartel. By federal law, U.S. authorities must fill the U.S. side of tunnels with concrete after they are discovered.
The over 1,700-foot “fully operational” tunnel runs from Tijuana to an industrial warehouse in San Diego, California. Authorities said it contains a “sophisticated” structural system that was likely used to smuggle heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl into the U.S.
Law enforcement officers stand by the opening of a cross-border tunnel on Monday, May 16, 2022 between Mexico’s Tijuana into the San Diego area.
ffIt is not known how long the secret passage, which has a railway track, ventilation systems, electricity and reinforced walls, had been operating.
Investigators found the tunnel after staking out a home used to stash drugs in the Mexican border city of Tijuana and stopping vehicles near the warehouse in Otay Mesa, south of San Diego.
They turned up boxes full of cocaine, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in San Diego.
The warehouse was on a street that was busy during the day but quiet at night, with armed guards watching over a small shaft with a ladder that descended into the tunnel.
“It’s estimated to be about 1,744 feet long, 61 feet deep, with a diameter of about 4 feet at its widest point,” said Randy Grossman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California. “It has reinforced walls, a rail system, and electricity for ventilation.”
U.S. authorities did not say how long the tunnel had been operating but announced $25 million worth of drugs were seized from the tunnel and its operatives over the weekend. The drugs included 1,762 pounds of cocaine, 165 pounds of meth and 3.5 pounds of heroin.
Six people from Southern California, aged 31 to 55, were charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine.
Authorities seized 799kg of cocaine, 75kg of meth and 1.6kg of heroin in connection with the investigation.
“There is no more light at the end of this narco-tunnel,” said Randy Grossman, a prosecutor for the Southern District of California.
“We will take down every subterranean smuggling route we find to keep illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”
The passage was discovered in an area where more than a dozen other sophisticated tunnels have been found in the past two decades.