Agents find 53-foot stretch of cross-border tunnel

07/30/09 3:43 PM PDT SAN DIEGO — Authorities say they have found another secret tunnel near a San Diego border crossing.

The 53-foot passageway, reinforced with plywood and equipped with battery-powered lights, was discovered Thursday as law enforcement officials were investigating an incomplete cross-border tunnel west of the San Ysidro crossing.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman says the builders entered through a manhole near the border fence in Mexico and crawled through 700 feet of sewer drain to access the tunnel. An exit was found under an old sofa cushion at the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Law enforcement officials believe the tunnel was being built to smuggle humans and drugs.



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