Agencies with the San Diego Tunnel Task Force announced on 30 November 2011 the arrest of six suspects and the seizure of more than 32 tons of marijuana, worth nearly $65 million, after finding the most elaborate smuggling tunnel uncovered along the US-Mexico border in recent years.[1] The discovery the previous day followed a six-month investigation by the multi-agency task force.[2]
The 612-yard passageway connected a warehouse in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial park with one in neighbouring Tijuana, Mexico.[1] It was fitted with electric rail cars, lighting, reinforced walls and wooden floors.[1] On the Mexican side the entrance was reached through a hydraulically controlled steel door and an elevator hidden beneath the warehouse floor; agents recovered about three tons of marijuana from a storage room at the bottom of the shaft and another ton piled near the entrance, while the Otay Mesa building held nearly 17 tons wrapped in plastic and stacked on pallets.[1]
The arrests began on Monday evening when investigators watched a tractor-trailer leave the Otay Mesa warehouse.[1] After the rig parked overnight in Miramar and headed for Los Angeles the next morning, detector dogs at the San Clemente checkpoint alerted on it; agents waved it through, followed it to a warehouse at 14837 Proctor Ave in the City of Industry, and seized more than 11 tons from the trailer while taking four suspects into custody.[1] Two more suspects were arrested overnight in Baldwin Park.[1] The six defendants were expected in federal court in Los Angeles and San Diego that Wednesday afternoon.[1]
The task force brings together ICE Homeland Security Investigations, Border Patrol, the DEA and California’s Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.[1] Its tunnel was the second major cross-border passageway found near San Diego in two weeks, after the 15 November discovery that yielded more than 14 tons, and the seventh large-scale tunnel found in the area since 2006.[1] A DEA official said seizing close to 50 tons in one month denied the cartels the means to keep operating.[1]
