Thread: Major drug tunnel found on US-Mexico border

Posted: 11:54 p.m.
Major drug tunnel found on US-Mexico border

SAN DIEGO — U.S. authorities say a highly sophisticated secret tunnel has been discovered on the border connecting San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said late Wednesday that the passage was recently completed. Officials didn't elaborate in a brief statement.

Mexican news organizations published photos that show a deep, well-built tunnel near the Tijuana airport. Alberto Capella, Tijuana's public safety chief, told The Associated Press that a law enforcement operation was underway and he couldn't provide details.

Dozens of tunnels have been discovered along the border in recent years, designed largely to smuggle marijuana to the United States.

http://www.wral.com/major-drug-tunne...rder/13057599/

San Diego drug tunnel held 8 tons of marijuana, 325 lbs of cocaine

Slideshow: Drug tunnels under the US border

Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images

Drug cartels build elaborate tunnels, some with rail tracks and lighting, under the Mexican border to smuggle drugs into the U.S.
Launch slideshow

By Mark Schone
NBC News

Authorities have discovered a new and “highly sophisticated” drug tunnel, complete with rail tracks, ventilation and lighting, under the border between San Diego and Mexico, and seized more than eight tons of marijuana and 325 pounds of cocaine.

The San Diego Tunnel Task Force, which includes members of ICE, the DEA and Customs and Border Protection, found the tunnel on Wednesday, just south of the Otay Mesa border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico. Authorities said that the tunnel, which linked two warehouses, was found before it was used, and three people were arrested.

Authorities said at a news conference Thursday afternoon that the so-called "supertunnel" zig-zagged for about a third of a mile at an average depth of 35 feet.

The discovery of cocaine marked the first time the drug was found in a San Diego-area border tunnel.

Nearly four dozen tunnels have been discovered under the Mexican border over the past five years. Most are used to smuggle drugs into the U.S. While some are crude holes in the grounds, others have had lighting, ventilation and even elevators.

Tunnels are common in the San Diego area, where there are many warehouses close to the border. Many are financed by drug cartels. Tunnels often run from a camouflaged hole in the floor of one warehouse to another warehouse on the other side of the border, though they have also been found in private homes.

ICE/ AFP - Getty Images

U.S. and Mexican authorities have uncovered a "highly sophisticated" tunnel used to smuggle drugs beneath their common border, officials said Thursday. The tunnel was shut down Wednesday night after being discovered under the border between San Diego and Tijuana, just over the border in Mexico.

The tunnel uncovered Wednesday night, which emerged near Tijuana’s airport 100 yards south of the U.S. border, was near the location of a similar sophisticated tunnel discovered two years ago.

In a news release, ICE said the tunnel was revealed after a box truck that had been under surveillance was pulled over by police in the suburb of Chula Vista for traffic violations on Saturday -- and three tons of marijuana were found inside. The rest of the marijuana was found in another box truck attempting to leave a warehouse in Chula Vista and at the Otay Mesa warehouse that contained one entrance to the tunnel. The cocaine was found in a van that had been seen leaving the Otay Mesa warehouse, ICE said in the release

Video released by ICE showed officers entering a large warehouse in the Otay Mesa section of San Diego, then crawling into a hole cut in a concrete floor.

Rail tracks are seen in the narrow tunnel below, and authorities said it also had lighting and ventilation. The video shows agents pulling bales of drugs from a lower hole and handing it into the tunnel, then up into the warehouse.

U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy noted at Thursday's news conference that the tunnel cost drug traffickers "years and tens of millions of dollars" to build, but it was closed down before it could be used.
“
They did not move one gram of narcotics through that tunnel,” said Bill Sherman, DEA special agent in charge.

At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Derek Benner, ICE special agent in charge, had a message for the smuggling ring, NBCSanDiego.com reported.

"We are by no means finished here," Benner said. "Don't say we didn't warn you."

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_n...lbs-of-cocaine

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http://www.alipac.us/f12/massive-car...border-291300/

By Sandra Dibble12:52 p.m.Nov. 5, 2013 Updated4:28 p.m.
utsandiego.com

SAN DIEGO — A federal magistrate in San Diego was expected to decide Tuesday whether three Mexican citizens arrested last week in connection with a cross-border drug tunnel are eligible for bail.

Jose Arturo Mendoza and Juan Pena Osuna pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, while Roman Santos Romero pleaded not guilty to a charge of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Since the tunnel’s discovery Wednesday, authorities have been allowing media into the Otay Mesa warehouse where the tunnel’s exit was found, and allowing journalists briefly inside the passageway.

On Monday, the warehouse was littered with piles of toys, and agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations were posted at the tunnel’s exit.

The tunnel descended about 35 to 40 feet from the concrete floor of the warehouse. It had electricity, ventilation and a rail system to move the drugs. It was about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide.

Joe Garcia, deputy special agent in charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego, said that the tunnel — found Wednesday following a month-long investigation — was less elaborate than some others found in the area in recent years. Those included features such as cinder-block walls and an elevator system.

The latest tunnel has “a very basic mine cart that just rolls down rails” on the U.S. side, Garcia said. “My understanding is that on the Mexican side, there was an electric mining cart, similar to ones we’ve found in the past that would facilitate moving the narcotics back and forth.”

U.S. authorities have announced the seizure of more than 17,000 pounds of marijuana and 327 pounds of cocaine in connection with the latest tunnel. Derek Benner, the ICE special agent in charge in San Diego, said Mexican authorities pulled marijuana out of their side of the tunnel.

UPDATE

Two of the three defendants, Juan Pena-Osuna and Roman Ramos-Romero, appeared in federal court Tuesday and agreed to remain in custody without bond, said Kelly Thornton, public affairs coordinator for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego. The third defendant, Jose Arturo Mendoza, asked that his detention hearing be postponed, Thornton said.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/...inaloa-cartel/