US authorities on Thursday 25 November 2010 found a sophisticated tunnel used to smuggle drugs between Mexico and San Diego, the second such discovery in the region in less than a month.[1] The 2,200-foot passage, more than seven football fields long, ran from the kitchen of a home in Tijuana to two warehouses in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial district.[2][3]
In Mexico the cinderblock-lined entry dropped 80 to 90 feet to a wood-lined floor; from the US side a stairway led to a room about 50 feet underground that was full of marijuana.[2] The tunnel had a rail system for carrying drugs on a small cart, fluorescent lighting and ventilation, making it one of the most advanced passages found to date.[2][3] Authorities seized more than 20 tons of marijuana.[2]
Arrests on both sides
Three men were arrested in the United States and the Mexican military raided a ranch in Mexico and made five arrests in connection with the tunnel.[2] US authorities followed a trailer from one of the warehouses to a Border Patrol checkpoint in Temecula, seizing 27,600 pounds of marijuana; the driver was arrested, along with another driver found at a suburban El Cajon residence holding $13,500 in cash.[3] The tunnel chief said the 25 November tunnel and the one found in early November were both believed to be the work of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, run independently by different cells of the same organization.[2] Investigators had been watching warehouses since June on a tip from a large San Bernardino County bust of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine.[2]
