Drug Tunnel Found on US-Mexico Border

A major drug tunnel was found on the US-Mexico border connecting San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the passage was only recently completed, though spokeswoman Lauren Mack declined to specify what it had been used for.

According to Fox News, Mexican news organizations published photos that show a deep, well-built tunnel near the Tijuana airport. ABC News and Associated Press reported Tijuana’s public safety chief Alberto Capella saying that a law enforcement operation was underway and he couldn’t provide details.

ABC News stated that more than 75 tunnels have been discovered along the US-Mexico border since 2008. The majority of those tunnels are designed to smuggle marijuana to the US, many of which are located along the border of California and Arizona.

“San Diego is popular because its clay-like soil is easy to dig. In Nogales, Arizona, smugglers tap into vast underground drainage canals. San Diego’s Otay Mesa area — site of the latest discovery — has the added draw of plenty of nondescript warehouses on both sides of the border to conceal trucks being loaded with drugs.”

According to ABC News, authorities said Wednesday that the most recent tunnel is the eighth major passage discovered in San Diego since 2006.This tunnel isn’t the first of it’s kind to stretch from San Diego to Tijuana. ABC News reported that on Thanksgiving Day of 2010, authorities found “a roughly 700-yard passage equipped with rail tracks that extended from the kitchen of a Tijuana home to two San Diego warehouses,” that held a total of about 22 tons of marijuana on both sides of the border.

The report continues on to state that in November 2011, “authorities found a 600-yard tunnel that resulted in seizures of 32 tons of marijuana on both sides of the border, with 26 tons found on the US side.” That drug tunnel on the US-Mexico boarder reportedly accounted for one of the largest pot busts in all of US history.

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