Border tunnels found in Nogales; Bolivians apprehended at Douglas
By Stephen Ceasar
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.15.2008

Two tunnels were discovered in Nogales this weekend by Nogales Police officers, making a four-day total of three tunnels found in the border town.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped 17 people from entering the United States using fraudulent Canadian citizenship cards at the Douglas port of entry.

Officers patrolling an area near downtown Nogales discovered a tunnel east of the DeConcini Port of Entry about 6:00 p.m. Friday, said Mario Escalante, U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector’s spokesman. Its opening was about eight feet north of the border fence and hidden by a piece of plywood and weeds, said Escalante.

U.S. Border Patrol agents sent a remote-controlled robot into the tunnel and determined that it was about 10 feet long and originated about 2 feet south of the border.

The second tunnel was found by Nogales police working under Operation Stonegarden, a government funded program to combat illegal immigration, said Escalante. The officers located the tunnel west of the DeConcini port of entry along International Street. It measured at about 16 inches wide and three feet in diameter, he said.

The tunnel was inside the Grand Avenue drainageway, a 20-foot-wide underground passageway built to divert floodwater but has been used by smugglers as an avenue into the United States for years.

Agents will guard the opening of both tunnels until they are secured, by either filling them with concrete or placing grates over the openings.
There have been eight tunnels found in the Tucson sector in the current fiscal year, which began in October. In the fiscal year 2008 there were 14 tunnels found and between the fiscal year 2003 and 2008 there were 34 total tunnels found, the agency says.

In an unrelated incident, Customs and Border Protection officers in Douglas stopped 17 Bolivians from illegally entering the United States using fake Canadian citizenship cards. The group —consisting of two families of four adults and 13 minors — attempted to enter through the port by presenting the cards, which looked to be authentic, said M. Carl Robinson, Public Affairs Officer for the Douglas Port of Entry. Officers spotted slight discrepancies and determined that all the cards were fraudulent, said Robinson.

One man in the group admitted that the cards were fabricated and bought in Mexico. The cards are estimated to cost about $500 each, said Robinson. All 17 people in the group were returned to Mexico.

∫ Stephen Ceasar is a University of Arizona student who is apprenticing at the Star. Contact him at 807-7776 or at starapprentice@azstarnet.com.

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