Thread: Smuggling Tunnel Found beneath U.S.-Mexico Border in Nogales

Smuggling Tunnel Found beneath U.S.-Mexico Border in Nogales
June 29th, 2007 @ 11:05am
by Associated Press

NOGALES, Ariz. - U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agents discovered a recently completed smuggling tunnel linking the two countries in simultaneous raids, officials said Friday.

The entrances to the tunnel, described as a sophisticated passageway its builders planned to use to smuggle drugs, were discovered in a home in Nogales, Ariz. and an apartment in Nogales, Mexico, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Five people were arrested by Sonoran State Police during the raid on the Mexican location.

The investigation has been under way since April, said Ramona Sanchez, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman. The tunnel was about 3 feet in diameter and 100 yards long, she said.

"It had not yet been used for the intended purpose," Sanchez said. She said no arrests had yet been made on the U.S. side of the border.

ICE and DEA agents who served a search warrant late Thursday at the tiny, one-story home found the tunnel entrance hidden beneath plywood sheets weighted down with bags of dirt inside a utility room. The tunnel itself was reinforced in areas with wooden supports and sand bags and had a lighting system, but no ventilation.

The home was largely unfurnished, and searchers found picks, a jackhammer and other excavation equipment.

Officials said the tunnel was the largest discovered along the U.S.-Mexico border since the so-called Grande Tunnel was found in January 2006 extending nearly a half-mile from San Diego to Tijuana.

Work began in May to close off that tunnel and six others, including one in Nogales, at a cost of $2.7 million.

Federal officials said the tunnel discovered Thursday has been temporarily sealed and will be filled in after the investigation is complete.

Federal officials said at 40 tunnels have been discovered crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and California since surveillance was increased following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, prompting drug smugglers to go underground to avoid detection.


http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=527838

Work began in May to close off that tunnel and six others, including one in Nogales, at a cost of $2.7 million.

Why not let the illegal prisoner chain gangs fill them in? They dug them in the first place and it didn't cost $2.7 million.

You could completely fill the tunnels with the tons and tons of trash the illegals dump along our border and in our deserts as soon as tey break in. In fact, make them pick it up and place it in the tunnel.

U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agents discovered a recently completed smuggling tunnel linking the two countries in simultaneous raids, officials said Friday.

Is ground penetrating radar a component of the "technological innovations" of the proposed border securiy measures???