Thread: Agents Uncover Possible Underground System At Border

http://www.10news.com

Agents Uncover Possible Underground System At Border
Mexican, American Agents Discover Border Tunnel

POSTED: 4:38 pm PST January 24, 2006
UPDATED: 5:21 pm PST January 24, 2006

SAN DIEGO -- On Friday, a border tunnel was found in Otay Mesa. Now it appears agents from the United States and Mexico have found what appears to be a second tunnel that could be a part of an underground network, 10News reported.

"It's a project we've been working on exhaustingly for past three to four months," said Mike Unzueta, who is the head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego.

Unzueta said the newly-created Tunnel Task Force is already discovering fertile ground.

"For us it's very exciting when we actually find one of these things. We've been looking for 10 that never existed," Unzueta said.

It appears that in less than four days, officials from the United States and Mexico have found two tunnels that originate from a metal warehouse in Mexico. On Friday, they found a different tunnel that appears to be connected to the tunnel found on Tuesday morning.

"We have an entrance that's 4 feet by 4 feet. What I've been told is that it leads to a shaft buried very deep into the ground," Unzueta said.

He said once authorities find the connection, it might lead them to exit points in the United States.

"We have caught most of these tunnels while they are still in the construction phase," Unzueta said.

He said that until a link is found, he could not confirm if the tunnels were part of an extended network.

http://www.signonsandiego.com

Deep shaft uncovered at border in Mexico


U.S. agents launch search for tunnel
By Onell R. Soto and Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
January 25, 2006

A long-term U.S. investigation led to the discovery yesterday of what may be a sophisticated tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border.

Investigators in Mexico discovered the entrance to a deep shaft inside a metal building in a truck yard about 100 yards south of the border and near the Tijuana airport, but it was unclear last night whether the shaft, with a pulley system, led to a tunnel, U.S. officials said.

California National Guard engineers digging with a bulldozer and a backhoe in an area between two border fences stopped when they heard of the discovery of the shaft.

It is unclear how deep the shaft goes and agents had not found a northern exit late yesterday, said Michael Unzueta, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's San Diego office.

Federal agents, prompted by tips and searches using high-tech equipment, have been looking for a tunnel in the area for months, Unzueta said.

In 1993, investigators discovered a massive unfinished tunnel that began, as this one appears to, in an unmarked industrial building in the same neighborhood and stretched 1,450 feet north to a factory building under construction.

"It's too early for us to tell whether this one is connected to any previous tunnel," Unzueta said.

The 1993 tunnel cost $1.5 million to $2 million to build and was discovered after a search of a drug lord's safe house yielded a map, authorities said at the time.

Authorities in Tijuana weren't saying much yesterday about what they had found about a mile west of the Otay Mesa border crossing. They blocked journalists from approaching the truck yard near a Mexican restaurant on the highway between the border fence and the Tijuana airport.

U.S. investigators told Mexican authorities about the possibility of a tunnel Monday evening.

"We were told there was a narco tunnel, and were told where it could open up," said Guillermo Gonzalez Smith, deputy commander of the Tijuana Municipal Police.

The tunnel could be longer and more sophisticated than the average cross-border tunnel, he said.

Throughout the day, armed Mexican federal agents blocked the narrow, dusty road leading to the truck yard, checking trucks and vehicles as they drove through.

By late afternoon, Mexican federal authorities still were waiting to obtain a search warrant to enter the property, which sits in an industrial area just east of the Tijuana airport. A warrant was not expected until late last night or today.

The area on the south side of the main road leading past the airport, is home to truck yards, junkyards and related small businesses. The land on which many of these businesses sit belongs to an ejido, or land cooperative, which allows the businesses to rent property.

If the shaft leads to a tunnel, it would be the third found this month as the result of chance and investigation by the Border Tunnel Task Force, which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

On Friday, based on a tip, members of the task force discovered a shallow tunnel about a quarter-mile from where they were digging yesterday.

That tunnel, about 120 feet long, appeared headed for an underground drainage system on the U.S. side.

On Jan. 9, a Border Patrol bus driver discovered a sinkhole in a road along the border west of the San Ysidro border crossing. Excavation revealed a tunnel about 35 feet long, with an exit on the U.S. side.

Mexican officials gave conflicting reports whether the tunnel had an exit there. The land just south of where U.S. officials found the tunnel is a junk yard owned by Mexican customs.

Yesterday's find would be the 20th cross-border tunnel in California or Arizona discovered since Sept. 11, 2001, said Lauren Mack, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Onell Soto: (619) 293-1280; onell.soto@uniontrib.com

Deep shaft uncovered at border in Mexico

Well the title pretty much sums things up.