Federal agents seized more than 20 tons of marijuana on the US end of a smuggling tunnel in one of the largest drug seizures in the country, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced on 3 November 2010.[1] Agents of the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, drawn from the DEA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol and the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, uncovered the crawlspace-sized tunnel running 600 yards.[1] About 30 tons with a street value of $20 million were seized in the US and Mexico and linked to the tunnel.[1][2]
The passageway connected a warehouse in the 9000 block of Via de la Amistad in Otay Mesa with a similar building in Tijuana, and was fitted with rail, lighting and ventilation; authorities believed it had been completed recently.[1] While watching the warehouse on Wednesday, agents followed a tractor-trailer to the Border Patrol checkpoint in Temecula, where a search found 10 tons of marijuana packed in large cargo boxes; the driver and passenger were taken into custody for federal drug smuggling prosecution.[1] A later search of the warehouse that Tuesday night found a second cache of about 15 tons and the tunnel entrance, and the Mexican military recovered another four tons at the Tijuana end.[1]
A cartel tunnel, the second-biggest US seizure
ICE Director John Morton called the seizure obviously the work of a cartel, and DEA acting administrator Michele Leonhart said it would strip millions in potential profits from the responsible organization.[1][2] Officials called it the largest seizure ever in California and believed it the second-largest in the United States, after 33 tons DEA agents seized in Oregon in 2008.[2] The 12-hour operation followed a monthlong investigation, and Morton credited cooperation with Mexican authorities; it came a little over a week after Mexico’s record 134-tonne seizure in Tijuana, though officials had not determined whether the same traffickers were behind both.[2]
