2 Underground Drug Tunnels Busted, Officials Boast

U.S. federal agents said Friday it took them five months to uncover two drug-smuggling tunnels beneath the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego-area warehouses, equipped with rail systems for moving contraband, officials said Friday, as though the US does not have high-technology radar and other surveillance equipment to see underground operations.

A 73-year-old woman was arrested, 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” that apparently had no access to the sophisticated radar technology the US boasts of having to fight crime and terrorism. 

Federal law enforcement officials said the first tunnel, connecting a warehouse in Tijuana with an industrial park in Otay Mesa, is about 600 yards long and furnished with lighting. A crude rail system and wooden trusses connected the border towns. The passageway is accessed by a 70-foot shaft secured by a cement cover and includes a pulley system on the U.S. side apparently for hoisting contraband up into the warehouse.

The second tunnel is described as being more sophisticated. It has a multi-tiered electric rail system and 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, not commenting on how long US officials have turned a blind eye to drugs crossing the border with impunity. 

“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 in California and Arizona, and seized some 100 tons of narcotics associated with them.