Thread: Suspected Drug Tunnel Found Near Arizona Town

Suspected Drug Tunnel Found Near Arizona Town

Published May 24, 2011

Associated Press

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SAN LUIS, Ariz. – The start of a drug tunnel or a possible stash place for narcotics and weapons has been uncovered in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico.

The Yuma Sun reports Mexican soldiers and police made the discovery Saturday near southwest Arizona. Mexico's Defense Ministry says the vertical shaft measures about 15 feet in depth and a little more than 6 feet in width.

The shaft was dug inside an empty home about 220 yards from the border with the United States.

The tunnel's walls are lined with concrete for about 7 feet, with the remaining portion fortified by sheet metal.

If intended as a tunnel, it would be at least the second one uncovered in San Luis Rio Colorado this year.

www.foxnews.com

Suspected drug tunnel or storage uncovered



May 23, 2011 1:08 PM



FROM STAFF REPORTS

Mexican soldiers and police have found an underground shaft in San Luis RÃ*o Colorado, Son., suspected of being either the beginnings of a smuggling tunnel or a stash for narcotics or weapons.

The vertical shaft, measuries about 15 feet in depth and a little more than 6 feet in width, Mexico’s Defense Ministry said in a news release. The shaft was dug inside an uninhabited home near 8th Street, about 220 yards from the border with the United States.

Mexican soldiers based in San Luis Rio Colorado found the the tunnel on Saturday while responding to an anonymous tip.

The tunnel’s walls are lined with concrete for about 7 feet, with the remaining portion fortified by sheet metal.

While the shaft has no offshoot extending north, it could have been planned as a tunnel to smuggle drugs or illegal immigrants into the United States, according to the news release.

Police officials, however, theorized that the shaft was intended as a storage area for drugs or guns.

No one was arrested and no weapons or drugs were seized at the time the shaft was found, the release said.

Police took custody of two cars that were parked at the house, one with California license plates and the other with Baja California plates.

If intended as a tunnel, it would be at least the second one uncovered in San Luis Rio Colorado in 2011.

In Feburary, police located an underground tunnel as it was being dug starting at a home located than 100 yards from the border. Seven people, all from Mexico’s Sinaloa state, were arrested in connection with its construction.

Suspected tunnels were also located in the city in 2007 and 2008, according to Yuma Sun archives.

http://www.yumasun.com/news/-70148--.html