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Probe by ICE and DEA Leads to Discovery of Cross-Border Drug Tunnel in Nogales

Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
executed a search warrant late yesterday afternoon at a home used to conceal the U.S. entrance to a recently constructed tunnel that stretched nearly 100 yards underground to a residence across the border in Mexico

News Releases
June 29, 2007

Probe by ICE and DEA leads to discovery of cross-border drug tunnel in Nogales
Passageway stretches almost the length of a football field

NOGALES, Ariz. –
Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) executed a search warrant here late yesterday afternoon at a home used to conceal the U.S. entrance to a recently constructed tunnel that stretched nearly 100 yards underground to a residence across the border in Mexico.Inside the tiny one-story home at 24 North Escalada Drive agents discovered the tunnel’s entrance in a utility room hidden beneath sheets of plywood weighted down with dirt-filled bags.Â* The shaft of the narrow passage, reinforced in places with wood supports and sandbags, measured three feet by three feet at the Nogales entrance.Â* The tunnel, which investigators believe had yet to be used, was equipped with lighting, but had no ventilation system.When agents entered the Nogales home, it was empty and largely unfurnished.Â* Scattered on the floor were picks, a jack-hammer, and other equipment likely used in the excavation.Â* As ICE and DEA agents searched the Nogales home, officers from the Sonoran State Police made entry into the residence across the border in Nogales, Sonora, where they located the tunnel’s other entrance.Â* At that location, Mexican authorities arrested five suspects.Â* ICE and DEA are coordinating the ongoing investigation into the tunnel, which has been under observation since April.Â* The two agencies have received substantial assistance in the case from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol.“Quick action by law enforcement ensured that this tunnel wouldn’t be used,â€