Authorities Find Drug Smuggling Tunnel in San Diego

Authorities Find Drug Smuggling Tunnel in San Diego

Published November 25, 2010
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO -- U.S. authorities have discovered a sophisticated tunnel used to smuggle drugs between Mexico and San Diego.

The federal San Diego Tunnel Task Force says the half-mile passage was found early Thursday and runs from a Tijuana residence to a warehouse in San Diego's Otay Mesa area.

Several arrests were made and an undetermined amount of marijuana was seized in a tractor-trailer on U.S. soil. Authorities believe there is more marijuana inside the tunnel. No other details were released.

It is the second major drug tunnel discovery in the area in less than a month. Earlier this month, American authorities confiscated 20 tons of pot they say was smuggled through another tunnel, while Mexican authorities seized more than four tons south of the border.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/25/au ... san-diego/

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Another tunnel? At this rate the border may be getting weaker in more ways than one. Actually the double layered fence that has been a huge success is probably the reason they have resorted to this strategy.

I.C.E. News Release

November 26, 2010
San Diego, CA

Discovery of 2nd major San Diego-area cross-border drug tunnel leads to 8 arrests, seizure of more than 20 tons of marijuana

SAN DIEGO - Eight suspects are in custody on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and more than 20 tons of marijuana have been seized following the San Diego Tunnel Task Force's discovery Thursday of a cross-border passageway even more sophisticated than a similar tunnel uncovered in the area less than three weeks ago.

Unlike previous area tunnels, the nearly half-mile long passageway had two U.S. entrances located in warehouses about 800 feet apart in the Otay Mesa industrial complex in southern San Diego. The tunnel, which reached an estimated depth of 90 feet, emerged in Tijuana, Mexico, inside a stucco residence outfitted with a garage large enough to accommodate deliveries by tractor trailer trucks. Inside, the tunnel's walls were fortified with wood and cinderblock supports and the passageway was equipped with advanced rail, electrical and ventilation systems.

The tunnel discovery is the result of an ongoing investigation by the multi-agency San Diego Tunnel Task Force, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Formed seven years ago, the task force uses a variety of techniques to detect cross-border tunnels, from state-of-the-art electronic surveillance to old fashioned detective work.

The tunnel was located Thursday morning after task force agents conducting surveillance in the Otay Mesa area observed suspicious activity involving a tractor trailer truck parked at a warehouse in the 10000 block of Marconi Drive where one of the tunnel's entrances was later found. After the truck left the site, agents kept it under surveillance, alerting CBP Border Patrol as it approached the traffic checkpoint in Temecula. There, Border Patrol agents stopped the vehicle and a search of the truck's trailer revealed more than 27,600 pounds of marijuana. The vehicle's driver was taken into custody and will be prosecuted on federal drug smuggling charges.

The tunnel was located Thursday morning after task force agents conducting surveillance in the Otay Mesa area observed suspicious activity involving a tractor trailer truck parked at a warehouse in the 10000 block of Marconi Drive where one of the tunnel's entrances was later found. After the truck left the site, agents kept it under surveillance, alerting CBP Border Patrol as it approached the traffic checkpoint in Temecula. There, Border Patrol agents stopped the vehicle and a search of the truck's trailer revealed more than 27,600 pounds of marijuana. The vehicle's driver was taken into custody and will be prosecuted on federal drug smuggling charges. The tunnel was located Thursday morning after task force agents conducting surveillance in the Otay Mesa area observed suspicious activity involving a tractor trailer truck parked at a warehouse in the 10000 block of Marconi Drive where one of the tunnel's entrances was later found. After the truck left the site, agents kept it under surveillance, alerting CBP Border Patrol as it approached the traffic checkpoint in Temecula. There, Border Patrol agents stopped the vehicle and a search of the truck's trailer revealed more than 27,600 pounds of marijuana. The vehicle's driver was taken into custody and will be prosecuted on federal drug smuggling charges.

“This discovery again shows the cartels' growing desperation in the face of beefed up border security and the costly extremes these organizations are trying in an effort to avoid detection,â€

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jean

Another tunnel? At this rate the border may be getting weaker in more ways than one. Actually the double layered fence that has been a huge success is probably the reason they have resorted to this strategy.

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That was my thought too. I dream of a complete border collapse and subsequent rainstorm and flooding of the collapse (mod edit).

San Diego Drug Tunnel Had Railcar, Tons of Pot

AP SAN DIEGO (Nov. 26) -- A sophisticated cross-border tunnel equipped with a rail system, ventilation and fluorescent lighting has been shut down by U.S. and Mexican officials - the second discovery of a major underground drug passage in San Diego this month, authorities said Friday.

The tunnel found Thursday is 2,200 feet long - more than seven football fields - and runs from the kitchen of a home in Tijuana, Mexico, to two warehouses in San Diego's Otay Mesa industrial district, said Mike Unzueta, head of investigations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego.

http://o.aolcdn.com/photo-hub/news_g...824196110.JPEG
Francisco Vega/AFP/Getty Images
A Mexican soldier patrols a tunnel discovered in a kitchen of a home in Tijuana, Mexico.

In Mexico, the tunnel's cinderblock-lined entry dropped 80 to 90 feet to a wood-lined floor, Unzueta said. From the U.S. side, there was a stairway leading to a room about 50 feet underground that was full of marijuana.

"It's a lot like how the ancient Egyptians buried the kings and queens," Unzueta said.

Authorities seized more than 20 tons of marijuana.

Unzueta said the tunnel discovered Thursday and another found in early November are believed to be the work of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, headed by that country's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

"We think ultimately they are controlled by the same overall cartel but that the tunnels were being managed and run independently by different cells operating within the same organization," Unzueta said.

The passage found Thursday is one of the most advanced to date, with an entry shaft in Mexico lined with cinderblocks and a rail system for drugs to be carried on a small cart, Unzueta said.

Three men were arrested in the United States, and the Mexican military raided a ranch in Mexico and made five arrests in connection with the tunnel, authorities said.

U.S. authorities have discovered more than 125 clandestine tunnels along the Mexican border since the early 1990s, though many were crude and incomplete.

U.S. authorities do not know how long the latest tunnel was operating. Unzueta said investigators began to look into several warehouses in June on a tip that emerged from a large bust of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

U.S. authorities followed a trailer from one of the warehouses to a Border Patrol checkpoint in Temecula, where they seized 27,600 pounds of marijuana. The driver, whose name was not released, was arrested, along with two others who went to a residence in suburban El Cajon that had $13,500 cash inside.

"That (trailer) was literally filled top to bottom, front to back," Unzueta said. "There wasn't any room for anything else in that tractor-trailer but air."

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Three tons of marijuana were found in a "subterranean room" and elsewhere in the tunnel on the U.S. side, authorities said. Mexican officials seized four tons of pot at a ranch in northern Mexico, bringing the total haul to more than 20 tons.

The discovery of the cross-border tunnel earlier this month marked one of the largest marijuana seizures in the United States, with agents confiscating 20 tons of marijuana they said was smuggled through the underground passage. One of the warehouses involved in the tunnel discovered Thursday is only a half-block away.

Several sophisticated tunnels have ended in San Diego warehouses. ICE began meeting with landowners last month to warn them about leasing space to tunnel builders.

"These owners of warehouses, they need to know their customers, they need to know who's in there leasing these things," Unzueta said.

http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/sa ... k3%7C28080

And they still will not admit we are at war with this country!

Sorry but I'm far more concerned with the illegal immigrants getting here than pot. They cause far more damage across the board.

MJ will never be legal simply because you can grow it at home year round, for pennies and produce the best smoke ever and not have to give the government a dime!

MJ does not need processing like cigarettes and alcohol, both of which are way more dangerous than MJ and legal??? The government makes more money on it when it is illegal.

Bottom line pharmaceutical companies can't charge you 10,000 times more than it cost and government can't tax it or profit in any way. These are the reason MJ is illegal.

San Diego Tunnel Task Force Discovers Second Border Tunnel

(Monday, November 29, 2010)

San Diego – Eight suspects are in custody on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and more than 20 tons of marijuana have been seized following the San Diego Tunnel Task Force’s discovery Thursday of a cross-border passageway even more sophisticated than a similar tunnel uncovered in the area less than three weeks ago.

Unlike previous area tunnels, the nearly half-mile long passageway had two U.S. entrances located in warehouses about 800 feet apart in the Otay Mesa industrial complex in southern San Diego. The tunnel, which reached an estimated depth of 90 feet, emerged in Tijuana, Mexico, inside a stucco residence outfitted with a garage large enough to accommodate deliveries by tractor trailer trucks. Inside, the tunnel’s walls were fortified with wood and cinderblock supports and the passageway was equipped with advanced rail, electrical and ventilation systems.

The tunnel discovery is the result of an ongoing investigation by the multi-agency San Diego Tunnel Task Force, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
click for hi-res

Formed seven years ago, the Task Force uses a variety of techniques to detect cross-border tunnels, from state-of-the-art electronic surveillance to old fashioned detective work.

The tunnel was located Thursday morning after Task Force agents conducting surveillance in the Otay Mesa area observed suspicious activity involving a tractor trailer truck parked at a warehouse in the 10000 block of Marconi Drive where one of the tunnel’s entrances was later found. After the truck left the site, agents kept it under surveillance, alerting Border Patrol agents as it approached the traffic checkpoint in Temecula. There, agents stopped the vehicle and a search of the truck’s trailer revealed more than 27,600 pounds of marijuana. The vehicle’s driver was taken into custody and will be prosecuted on federal drug smuggling charges.

“This discovery again shows the cartels’ growing desperation in the face of beefed up border security and the costly extremes these organizations are trying in an effort to avoid detection,â€