U.S. federal agents have uncovered two drug-smuggling tunnels underneath the U.S.-Mexico border, both surfacing in San Diego-area warehouses and equipped with rail systems for moving contraband, officials said on Friday.
The discovery led to the arrest of a 73-year-old woman accused of running one of the warehouses connected to a drug smuggling operation, according to a joint news release by four federal agencies.
The tunnels were discovered as part of a five-month investigation by the so-called San Diego Tunnel Task Force.
Federal law enforcement officials said the first tunnel, which connects a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico, with one in an industrial park in the border community of Otay Mesa, is about 600 yards long and is furnished with lighting, a crude rail system and wooden trusses.
The passageway is accessed via a 70-foot shaft secured by a cement cover and includes a pulley system on the U.S. side apparently intended to hoist contraband up into the warehouse.
The second tunnel was even more sophisticated, built with a multi-tiered electric rail system and an array of ventilation equipment.
“Here we are again, foiling cartel plans to sneak millions of dollars of illegal drugs through secret passageways that cost millions of dollars to build,” U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said in a statement.
“Going underground is not a good business plan. We have promised to locate these super tunnels and keep powerful drug cartels from taking their business underground and out of sight, and once again, we have delivered on that promise,” Duffy said.
The two tunnels are the sixth and seventh cross-border passageways discovered in the San Diego area in less than four years, according to the task force.
Since 2006, federal authorities have detected at least 80 cross-border smuggling tunnels, most of them in California and Arizona, and seized some 100 tons of narcotics associated with them.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Dan Grebler)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/04/us-usa-mexico-drugtunnel-idUSBREA331DG20140404
just shows you how good our border patrols are, These tunnels had to be there for years, decades, maybe even longer and they are just finding them now
Get the hell out of your dam trucks and do some walking you fat slobs!
End the useless war on drugs,end the police/court/prison cartels,what you do at home or a friends home non of my business when it is your own body,keep the dui as then you are risking others lives,just stay at the party!You disagree then at least support illegalization of booze and tobacco as more killed by them then the so called illegal narcotics.
I second that, James. you are exactly right. What a person does to or does with his body, as long as no one unwilling is affected, is none of my or anybody elses damn business.
Thank you Tunnel Task Force, thank you. The Job that you have been doing is not just tough, but dangerous. The cartel are a bunch of devils that carless for anybody, not their mama nor their own child, they would shot you if you were a dog, they could careless, because they have that sinful decease called which is called, “The love of money”, which unless you are ignorant of the Word of God, one would know, it is the ROOT of ALL evil. Not my words, God’s Word.