Thread: AZ-Border agents find smuggling tunnel in Nogales, Ariz.

Border agents find smuggling tunnel in Nogales, Ariz.
Dec. 30, 2009 12:18 PM










NOGALES, Ariz. - Border Patrol agents in the Arizona border city of Nogales discovered a 36-foot smuggling tunnel Tuesday that was under construction and caused a sink hole on a street.

Agency spokesman David Jimarez says the tunnel's builders knocked a hole in a drainage system in the neighboring Mexican city of Nogales and dug out an offshoot extending 25 feet into the American sister city.

Investigators don't know where the tunnel was supposed to end because it wasn't finished.
No arrests have been made.

Since October 2006, 46 tunnels have been discovered in the agency's Tucson sector, which includes Nogales, where a majority of the pathways were found.

Arizona is a busy hub for transporting illegal immigrants and marijuana into the country.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... el-ON.html

Sink hole in Nogales leads agents to 'sophisticated' tunnel
Reported by: Deborah Stocks

Last Update: 12/30 10:47 am
The tunnel's entrance was hidden with bricks and mortar (Border Patrol)
Slideshow
The tunnel's entrance was hidden with bricks and mortar (Border Patrol)

NOGALES, AZ – Officials say a "sophisticated" tunnel was discovered after a section of a Nogales city street caved in two days before Christmas.

City workers had placed a steel plate over the hole, west of the DeConcini Port of Entry, to allow traffic during the holiday and officials contacted Border Patrol agents.

Agents inspecting the site found the street had caved in over a tunnel that appeared to be under construction with 2x4 wood shoring and plywood floors, walls and ceilings.

Officials said the tunnel was 36 feet long and extended 25 feet into the U.S. The tunnel reportedly begins from the Grand Avenue Storm drainage system in Mexico.

Agents apparently found a rope, bucket and digging tools inside the incomplete tunnel that was concealed with red brick and mortar at the entrance.

Officials say smuggling organizations often use existing drainage tunnels to hide their smuggling attempts.

“Tunneling attempts present a threat to our homeland security,â€

Since October 2006, 46 tunnels have been discovered in the agency's Tucson sector, which includes Nogales, where a majority of the pathways were found.

Just how many weren't discovered? We'll never know and this is just a small sector of our border.


Without strict enforcement by ICE in the interior of the USA this will never end.

“Tunneling attempts present a threat to our homeland security,â€