Photos courtesy of ICE
Tunnel included an elevator and a hydraulically controlled steel door in Mexico's side.
By H. Nelson Goodson
November 30, 2011
San Diego, CA - On Wednesday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that a 640-yard long tunnel stretching between Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego was discovered by the San Diego Tunnel Task Force. Six suspects were taken into custody and confiscated at least $65 million in marijuana.
The news release says, that the tunnel on the U.S. was hidden in an Otay Mesa industrial park warehouse and its passageway had an electric rail system, reinforced walls, lighting, wooden floors and ventilation.
In Mexico's side, Mexican authorities found an elevator under a warehouse building leading to the tunnel. The tunnel's entrance is accessed through a hydraulically controlled steel door and an elevator concealed beneath the warehouse floor. At the bottom of the tunnel shaft is a large storage room where agents recovered approximately three tons of marijuana. Another ton of marijuana was piled in bundles near the tunnel's entrance. Meanwhile, investigators searched the Otay Mesa building that housed the tunnel's U.S. entry point, where they found another 20 tons of marijuana wrapped in plastic and stacked neatly on pallets.
The drug bust unfolded on Monday night, when ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) observed a tractor trailer truck parked over night at the Otay Mesa warehouse. On early Tuesday, the feds observed a man who picked up the truck and drove it to Los Angeles. Feds moved in after the driver parked the truck at a warehouse in the City of Industry, Calif. There, he pulled into the parking lot of a warehouse located at 14837 Proctor Ave. and, together with three other individuals, began unloading the trailer's contents.
The feds then made their bust after a two year investigation. They seized 11 tons from the truck and a total of 32 tons had been recovered in the joint drug bust totaling almost $65 million.
Two other suspects linked to the scheme were arrested overnight in Baldwin Park, California. The six defendants, all Hispanic males, are expected to be charged on Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles and San Diego.
The passageway uncovered Tuesday is the seventh large-scale drug smuggling tunnel discovered in the San Diego area, since 2006. In the last four years, federal authorities have detected more than 75 cross-border smuggling tunnels, most of them in California and Arizona, according to ICE's news release.
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Tunnel included an elevator and a hydraulically controlled steel door in Mexico's side.
By H. Nelson Goodson
November 30, 2011
San Diego, CA - On Wednesday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that a 640-yard long tunnel stretching between Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego was discovered by the San Diego Tunnel Task Force. Six suspects were taken into custody and confiscated at least $65 million in marijuana.
The news release says, that the tunnel on the U.S. was hidden in an Otay Mesa industrial park warehouse and its passageway had an electric rail system, reinforced walls, lighting, wooden floors and ventilation.
In Mexico's side, Mexican authorities found an elevator under a warehouse building leading to the tunnel. The tunnel's entrance is accessed through a hydraulically controlled steel door and an elevator concealed beneath the warehouse floor. At the bottom of the tunnel shaft is a large storage room where agents recovered approximately three tons of marijuana. Another ton of marijuana was piled in bundles near the tunnel's entrance. Meanwhile, investigators searched the Otay Mesa building that housed the tunnel's U.S. entry point, where they found another 20 tons of marijuana wrapped in plastic and stacked neatly on pallets.
The drug bust unfolded on Monday night, when ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) observed a tractor trailer truck parked over night at the Otay Mesa warehouse. On early Tuesday, the feds observed a man who picked up the truck and drove it to Los Angeles. Feds moved in after the driver parked the truck at a warehouse in the City of Industry, Calif. There, he pulled into the parking lot of a warehouse located at 14837 Proctor Ave. and, together with three other individuals, began unloading the trailer's contents.
The feds then made their bust after a two year investigation. They seized 11 tons from the truck and a total of 32 tons had been recovered in the joint drug bust totaling almost $65 million.
Two other suspects linked to the scheme were arrested overnight in Baldwin Park, California. The six defendants, all Hispanic males, are expected to be charged on Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles and San Diego.
The passageway uncovered Tuesday is the seventh large-scale drug smuggling tunnel discovered in the San Diego area, since 2006. In the last four years, federal authorities have detected more than 75 cross-border smuggling tunnels, most of them in California and Arizona, according to ICE's news release.
On Mexico' side: Mexican military found a tunnel stretching to San Diego, California with an elevator and shaft under a warehouse at the Centro Urbano 70-76 neighborhood in the area of the Calzada Fuerza in Mesa de Otay, Tijuana, B.C. They also recovered 1,068 packages of marijuana with a total weight of 3 tons and 940 kilograms, the Mexican National Secretary of Defense (Sedena) reported. Photos: Sedena
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