Thread: U.S. authorities find exit to lengthy cross-border tunnel

U.S. authorities find exit to lengthy cross-border tunnel

Associated Press
Jan. 26, 2006 07:10 AM


SAN DIEGO - Authorities located the U.S. exit to a "massive" cross-border tunnel that began near the Tijuana, Mexico, airport and was apparently used for smuggling people or drugs, a U.S. official said.

The tunnel began inside a warehouse near the airport with a cement shaft about 10 feet wide and 7 feet long. The shaft dropped about 75 feet to the tunnel, which was armslength wide and high enough for an adult to stand inside.

The tunnel floor was cement, and lights ran down the side of one of the hard soil walls. advertisement




Mexican authorities allowed reporters and photographers in the tunnel late Wednesday night. Near the entrance, authorities were seen weighing what appeared to be marijuana. Several hundred packages were wrapped with brown packing tape.

Wednesday's discovery of the exit prompted a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office in San Diego, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mack declined to provide the location of the exit and would only describe the passageway as longer than most of the 21 cross-border tunnels discovered since authorities began keeping track after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"It's massive," she said.

Mexican investigators found the entrance to the tunnel Tuesday in the warehouse about 100 yards south of the border. The tunnel was equipped with a pulley system.

Also Wednesday, U.S. and Mexican authorities found an unfinished tunnel when a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle struck a sinkhole early Wednesday near the San Ysidro border crossing, which links Tijuana and San Diego. It was about two feet underground and extended about 30 feet into the United States, near a storm drain.

"It was very, very small and extremely primitive," Mack said.

The unfinished tunnel began just south of the border in Tijuana in a vacant lot, said Jose Marquez Padilla, a Mexican Customs director. It was about three feet wide.

Four tunnels have been discovered this month in the Tijuana-San Diego area.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... 26-ON.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com



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Two tons of pot found inside Mexico-U.S. border tunnel

By Onell R. Soto and Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
January 26, 2006

Investigators discovered a sophisticated cross-border tunnel yesterday extending about a half-mile and found about 2 tons of marijuana on the Mexican end.
The tunnel begins about 85 feet below a small warehouse about 175 yards south of the U.S. border. The other end is in an apparently vacant industrial building in Otay Mesa.

Late last night, authorities were still pulling marijuana out of the tunnel, which is outfitted with electricity and a ventilation system. The building is in an industrial neighborhood near Tijuana's airport.

The concrete-lined shaft is 6 feet by 12 feet with a metal ladder that leads to the packed-earth tunnel, which is tall enough for a person to stand in.
A gurney hanging from a pulley system attached to one of the building's beams allowed items to be moved into and out of the tunnel. Two trucks and a van were parked inside the warehouse.

Authorities said the elaborate tunnel bore the hallmarks of Mexican drug cartels, which have spent millions of dollars in the last 15 years to find a way to move contraband across the border.

When Mexican officials allowed the media into the small warehouse shortly before 9 p.m., reporters saw about 300 bundles of marijuana stacked more than 5 feet high.

In the United States, the warehouse where the tunnel ended – north of Siempre Viva Road – was surrounded by law enforcement agents last night.

Authorities did not estimate how long the tunnel might have been in use or provide information about who might own the properties where the tunnel's entrance and exit were found.

In Tijuana, after spending most of yesterday waiting for a search warrant from Mexico City, dozens of Mexican police and federal agents swarmed around the metal building and surrounding truck yard late in the afternoon.

While Mexican agents awaited approval for a thorough search of the shaft, their U.S. counterparts resumed digging with heavy equipment in an area between two border fences.

That digging stopped about 4:15 p.m. when word came back that Mexican agents had found the tunnel at the bottom of the shaft.

"We have a tunnel and it's massive," said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which was investigating the tunnel with agents from the Border Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego and Mexican federal, state and local officials are also part of the investigation.

Based on tips, U.S. officials began investigating the possibility of a tunnel in the area in 2004.

The investigation included searches using high-tech equipment capable of providing rough images of objects underground.

Monday evening, U.S. agents notified their Mexican counterparts of the possibility of a tunnel.

California National Guard troops who work with the Border Patrol began digging Tuesday morning with a bulldozer and a backhoe.

In Tijuana, Mexican military trucks rolled in and out of the yard yesterday.

At a billboard-making business next door, worker José Javier Ramirez Velasquez, 24, said the large shed "appeared abandoned."

Since moving from Guadalajara two months ago, he has been staying on a trailer nearby and said he had heard no noise or any digging.

"It caught me by surprise learning there was a narcotunnel here," he said. Meanwhile, several miles away yesterday morning, a U.S. Border Patrol agent found another tunnel a short distance west of the San Ysidro border crossing.

This tunnel, far from sophisticated, is the kind that agents call a "gopher hole." It was dug in an area just south of the fence in Mexico and extended about 30 feet in the United States, officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol said.

The tunnel, just 2 feet underground and about 2 feet square, was discovered after an agent investigating some people standing near the fence north of the border found an area where it had caved in, Border Patrol spokesman Richard Kite said.

"It was not a complete tunnel and was of no use to any criminal enterprise," he said. "There were several people who were coming north of the fence. One of them was able to make it back across to Mexico."

That tunnel was about 50 yards west of where a similar tunnel was found Jan. 9.

A fourth tunnel under construction, with electric lights but with its entrance covered by a board, was discovered near the Otay Mesa border crossing Friday.

This month's discoveries bring to 21 the number of tunnels found in Arizona and California since Sept. 11, 2001, when inspections at the border crossings were beefed up. Between 1990 and 2001, 15 tunnels were found.

The increased number of tunnels is a good sign, said John Fernandes, the special agent in charge of the DEA's San Diego office.

"It is an indication, as far as I'm concerned, about their frustration with our success," he said.

Drug seizures at California border crossings were up 24 percent last fiscal year over the year before, customs officials announced this week. In the year ending Sept. 30, more than 127 tons of drugs were seized, the vast majority of that marijuana.

Tunnels provide a way to avoid inspectors altogether, and that's why drug cartels will spend millions of dollars building them, said lawyer John Kirby, who specialized in drug prosecutions before leaving the U.S. Attorney's Office last year.

"You don't have to play Russian roulette with the border," he said.

The Arellano-Felix cartel was behind a 1,000-foot tunnel between a Mexican ranch house east of Tecate and a house in East County.

It has been battling rival cartels headed by accused drug traffickers Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and JoaquÃÂ*n "El Chapo" Guzman.

Guzman has tried underground routes before, prosecutors said.

In 1993, people working for him tried to dig a tunnel 1,450 feet north from an industrial building in Tijuana to a factory building under construction in Otay Mesa. They came up in a field about 120 feet short of their target.

That tunnel was discovered after officials found a map in a Tijuana safe house while investigating the killings of Cardinal Juan José Posadas Ocampo and six others in Guadalajara.

Guzman was caught, but escaped from a Mexican jail in 2001. He was indicted in San Diego on drug-trafficking charges. U.S. authorities have offered a $5 million reward for information relating to his arrest.

"Chapo was known," Kirby said. "He could get drugs over quickly."


Going underground
The biggest tunnels that U.S. and Mexican authorities have discovered under the border between California and Baja California:

Yesterday – A 2,600-foot-long tunnel between an industrial building near Tijuana's airport and a warehouse near Siempre Viva Road in Otay Mesa.

Feb. 25, 2005 – A 600-foot tunnel between a house in Mexicali and a house in Calexico.

Feb. 27, 2002 – A 1,200-foot tunnel between a ranch house on the outskirts of Tecate, Mexico, and an unoccupied house in Tierra del Sol near Boulevard.

May 31, 1993 – An unfinished 1,450-foot tunnel that began in an industrial building near Tijuana's airport. The tunnelers were headed toward a warehouse on Siempre Viva Road in Otay Mesa, but were about 120 feet short when it was discovered.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Onell Soto: (619) 293-1280; onell.soto@uniontrib.com

Lou Dobbs is getting ready to cover this and the Mexican Military invasion

Lou sure did kick some butt! Lou is the man, my hero!

Originally Posted by rebellady1964

Lou sure did kick some butt! Lou is the man, my hero!

You're right, sure wish he would run for prez.

A gurney hanging from a pulley system
attached to one of the warehouse's beams
allowed items to be moved into and out of
the tunnel. Two trucks and a van were
parked inside the warehouse.


A concrete-lined shaft 6 feet by 12 feet
with a metal ladder leads to the tunnel,
which is tall enough for a person to stand in.


The tunnel, discovered Wednesday, begins
about 85 feet below a small warehouse about
175 yards south of the U.S. border.




Late Wednesday night, authorities were still
pulling marijuana out of the tunnel, which is
outfitted with electricity and a ventilation system.


Investigators found two tons of marijuana at
the Mexican end of a sophisticated cross-border
tunnel that leads to an industrial building in Otay Mesa.

http://www.kfmb.com/story.php?id=36587

Officials: Anyone Involved With Border Tunnel Could Be In Danger

Last Updated:
01-27-06 at 2:03PM

(AP) – U.S. investigators said today they have intelligence that anyone associated with the longest and one of the most sophisticated tunnels ever discovered along the U.S.-Mexico
border may be in "grave danger."

Officials on both sides of the border found two tons of marijuana this week inside the 2,400-foot passageway that stretched from near the airport near Tijuana, Mexico to a San Diego
warehouse.

The DEA has said it suspects that Tijuana's Arellano-Felix drug syndicate or another cartel is behind the tunnel. U.S. investigators say that the organization will do anything to protect
its interests, including taking lives.

Intelligence says those involved in the tunnel's design or construction may be in immediate danger.

Federal officials appealed to anyone involved with the tunnel to seek safety with U-S officials at Mexican border crossings and said they would everything within their power to protect their safety.

http://www.signonsandiego.com



The 2,400-foot-long tunnel runs from a
warehouse near Tijuana's airport to this
Otay Mesa warehouse. A sign says it is
home to V&F Distributors LLC, but it is
unclear who rents the building.

2,400-foot tunnel 'beats them all'

Builders of passage were well-funded, investigators say
By Onell R. Soto and Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
January 27, 2006


In the corner of a cavernous Otay Mesa warehouse, a small room held a big secret: the door to a passageway from Mexico.
U.S. agents had been investigating the possibility of an elaborate drug-smuggling tunnel between Tijuana and San Diego for more than a year, but couldn't find it despite using military equipment so advanced it's classified.

Instead, as often happens with drug cases, the break came from tips.

The tips led to the discovery of the longest cross-border tunnel in U.S. history, running nearly a half-mile from a small warehouse near Tijuana's airport to the large Otay Mesa warehouse.

“This tunnel beats them all,â€

http://www.signonsandiego.com


Drug tunnel's on hot-potato property


Otay Mesa lot has had many tenants, owners
By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 28, 2006

The warehouse on Siempre Viva Road in Otay Mesa never had much luck attracting long-term interest, until recently.
The building where federal agents discovered a long and highly sophisticated cross-border drug tunnel this week has had a long history of short-term tenants, according to its developer. The property on which it sits also has changed ownership several times in recent years, property records show.


The lot lies within the Border Business Park, formerly the De La Fuente Business Park, a 312-acre parcel whose one-time owner, Roque de la Fuente II, has been embroiled in a legal battle with the city for years.

The property is one of many that de la Fuente lost to foreclosure during the 1990s. In early 1997, the lot changed hands from the business park to a bank. Later that year, it changed hands again to another private owner, who never developed it.

In 2001, the lot was bought by Costa Brava Trade Center LLC, a company formed by Michael Vogt, a Chula Vista real estate broker who had arranged the previous transaction. With investors, he formed the limited liability company to develop the lot into a 48,000-plus-square-foot warehouse with 4,000 square feet of office space.

Yet, despite its generous proportions, Vogt said he had trouble getting anyone to rent the place for very long.

“We were trying to get a long-term tenant,â€

http://www.signonsandiego.com

Smuggling tunnel details come to light


Door, on wheels, only was opened from below
By Tony Manolatos
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 30, 2006

The floor is layered concrete and ceramic tile 2 inches thick. You can't tell there's anything different with the four large tan tiles in the corner.

But it's a secret door, one that could be opened only from below.

It's this passageway that federal authorities said was the exit point for drug smugglers who built a massive underground tunnel to bring tons of marijuana into the United States from Tijuana.

Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement discovered the tunnel last week. It runs 2,400 feet, or the length of about eight football fields, and is equipped with lighting, ventilation and groundwater drainage.

When asked yesterday whether any arrests have been made, Special Agent Michael Unzueta only would say the investigation is “moving swiftly.â€