Thread: Drug tunnel linking TJ & San Diego discovered 30 TONS

Drug tunnel linking Tijuana and San Diego discovered

More than 20 tons of marijuana found inside

By Sandra Dibble
Originally published November 3, 2010 at 11:21 a.m., updated November 3, 2010 at 12:59 p.m.

TIJUANA — U.S. authorities on Wednesday announced the seizure of more than 20 tons of marijuana from a cross-border tunnel linking warehouses in Tijuana and San Diego.

The tunnel is east of the Otay Mesa border crossing. It measures 600 yards and came equipped with a rail system, lighting and ventilation, authorities said in a statement. The passageway “is not as large as some prior" tunnels in the area, the statement said.

Officials with the multi-agency San Diego Tunnel Task Force found the tunnel and made the marijuana seizure during an overnight search. The agencies involved on the U.S. side include Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Border Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The discovery was first announced Wednesday morning by Mexican military authorities. More details are expected to be released throughout the day.

Since U.S. authorities began keeping count in the early 1990s, about 125 tunnels have been discovered on the U.S.-Mexico border, most of them on the California and Arizona borders, according to ICE. They are typically used to smuggle drugs or people from Mexico to the United States.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... marijuana/

20 Tons of Pot Found Near Tunnel by U.S. Border

Published November 03, 2010
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO -- Federal authorities in San Diego have made one of the largest marijuana seizures in the United States, confiscating 20 tons of pot near an underground tunnel connecting warehouses on either side of California's border with Mexico, officials said Wednesday.

Mexican authorities seized another four tons of pot from the warehouse on their side of the border.

In total, between 25 and 30 tons of marijuana were seized from both sides -- worth more than $20 million if sold on the streets of San Diego, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton. The bricks of pot were packaged for sale.

"This is obviously the work of a cartel," said Morton, who held a news conference outside the warehouse in an industrial park near the Otay Mesa truck crossing, across from Tijuana.

Officials said the lightening-speed, 12-hour operation started Tuesday night when U.S. authorities watching a warehouse under surveillance followed a tractor-trailer as it left the building.

ICE agents called in the California Highway Patrol, whose officers stopped the rig near Temecula, California, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) way. Authorities say they found 10 tons of marijuana inside the tractor-trailer. The driver, a U.S. citizen, and his Mexican wife were arrested and will be arraigned in San Diego on Thursday.

Authorities quickly obtained a federal search warrant to enter the warehouse, where they discovered 10 to 15 more tons of marijuana, Morton said.

They also found the opening to the tunnel, which ran the length of six football fields under the border and ended at a warehouse in Mexico, Morton said. The tunnel had lighting, ventilation and a rail system to send loads of illegal drugs into California.

The clandestine passageway was too low to stand up in and was believed to be in operation for only a brief time, Morton said.

Officials said the seizure was the largest ever in California and was believed to be the second-largest in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized 33 tons of marijuana in Oregon in 2008, DEA special agent Ralph W. Partridge said.

Wednesday's announcement comes a little over a week after Mexican officials made their largest marijuana seizure ever, confiscating a massive 134 tons believed to belong to the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

Morton said officials haven't determined whether the two major busts were from the same group of traffickers.

Officials have found 125 cross-border tunnels built by Mexican drug cartels to elude detection since the early 1990s, ICE officials said. Of those, 75 have been found in the past four years. Many were discovered before they were completed. The majority were found along the California and Arizona borders with Mexico.

Morton credited the increase in tunnel discoveries to "good old-fashioned law enforcement" efforts, with agents keeping a close eye on the thousands of warehouses storing goods moved back and forth across the border.

Morton said such a rapid bust, which came after a monthlong investigation, was possible because of cooperation between U.S. and Mexican authorities. He said that cooperation is better than ever, making it tougher for Mexican drug traffickers to move their loads and forcing their smuggling businesses to move underground.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/03/to ... el-border/

It must be getting harder to get their drugs across the border in other areas of the country now so they have come back to take another run at San Diego. They went to other parts of the border after the double fence was built here and underground became the only way in. The border patrol got good at finding the tunnels when they started using military equipment designed for just such things. And now they are back.

Hitting 'em hard on both sides of the country.

Drug bust nets millions in cash, tons of drugs

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-217247.html

News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Amy Roderick
Number: 858-616-4166

Tunnel Task Force Discovers Cross Border Tunnel

30 tons of Marijuana Seized in Investigation


NOV 03 -- SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Tunnel Task Force uncovered a sophisticated 600-yard underground cross-border tunnel overnight. Approximately 30 tons of marijuana seized in the US and Mexico have been linked to the tunnel.

The tunnel is described as a crawlspace-sized passageway, connecting an Otay Mesa warehouse in the 9000 block of Via de la Amistad with a similar building in Tijuana, Mexico. The tunnel is equipped with rail, lighting and ventilation systems. Based upon preliminary indications, authorities believe the passageway was probably completed very recently.

“I applaud the efforts of this skilled multi-agency task force of tenacious agents from DEA, ICE, Border Patrol and California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement who uncovered this elaborate smuggling scheme leading to the massive marijuana haul and tunnel discovery,â€