Posted on 01/26/2006 12:15:45 PM PST by BurbankKarl
SAN DIEGO -- Authorities were removing an estimated 2 tons of marijuana from a "massive" cross-border tunnel that began near the Tijuana airport and ended near an apparently vacant industrial building on the U.S. side, officials said.
Authorities on Wednesday located the U.S. exit to the tunnel, which began inside a warehouse near the airport with a cement shaft about 10 feet wide and 7 feet long. The shaft dropped about 75 feet to the tunnel, which was armslength wide and high enough for an adult to stand inside.
The tunnel floor was cement, and lights ran down the side of one of the hard soil walls.
Mexican authorities allowed reporters and photographers in the tunnel late Wednesday night. Near the entrance, authorities were seen weighing what appeared to be marijuana. Several hundred packages wrapped with brown packing tape were stacked about 5 feet high.
The discovery of the exit prompted a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office in San Diego, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mack described the passageway as longer than most of the 21 cross-border tunnels discovered since authorities began keeping track after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"It's massive," she said.
Mexican investigators found the entrance to the tunnel Tuesday in the warehouse about 100 yards south of the border. The tunnel was equipped with a pulley system.
Also Wednesday, U.S. and Mexican authorities found an unfinished tunnel when a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle struck a sinkhole early Wednesday near the San Ysidro border crossing, which links Tijuana and San Diego. It was about two feet underground and extended about 30 feet into the United States, near a storm drain.
"It was very, very small and extremely primitive," Mack said.
The unfinished tunnel began just south of the border in Tijuana in a vacant lot, said Jose Marquez Padilla, a Mexican Customs director. It was about three feet wide.
Last week, Border Patrol agents discovered a 35-foot-long tunnel beneath the U.S.-Mexico border in after it caved in and the asphalt roadway above it collapsed. U.S. authorities said the tunnel ended in a patch of vacant land near the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego. Three other tunnels have been discovered this month in the Tijuana-San Diego area.
2 tons??
Wow. That's a supply that'll last several lifetimes.....
I'm glad the border patrol is spending it's time on a real issue like pot. Nevermind those people sneaking across the border during that photo op; the devil's weed is off the streets!
Build a border fence and they'll tunnel under it.
Gee, do ya think this tunnel was used for illegal immigration? Geez...
Mack described the passageway as longer than most of the 21 cross-border tunnels discovered since authorities began keeping track after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
--Its great that they have been doing things to stop the construction and use of these tunnels.
Wow, thats a darn nice tunnel. They should put a huge fan at one end and light the pile up. They could give half the city the munchies by dinner time.
Speak for yourself!......
Do it and let them tunnel. Better than waltzing in like they do now. Make them dig for it then wait at the other end.
We have a winner! Why anyone in their right mind would propose a multi-million dollar wall to be patrolled by the same half-wits that cannot patrol hogwire topped with barbed wire; is beyond me.
Now that 5000 illegals a day are pouring into other cities such as Las Vegas, people are taking notice.
How much money do you have to be making to pay for a 100 yard long tunnel with concrete floors and lights?
If these smugglers have that much money, couldn't they just fly the stuff in and parachute it into some empty desert and pick it up? Would the parachutes show up on American radar? Just curious.
Look at this as a farm crop. vast in scale and distribution. There are so many of these tunnels that they are finding them almost by accident.
The key is to add moe BP agents, employ better technology, construct vehicle barriers, and enforce the law on the interior. I'm certainly open to a wall, but I'm not necessarily sure it would solve the problem.
i often wonder what the deal with planes with huge quantities of coke or whatever being caught by customs is - either a LOT of those planes are getting in and someone didn't pay the bills or they are a gimme to give customs good pr. either way, clearly it is the tip of the iceberg.
i would imagine DoD has developed some seismic or sonar tech to try to detect tunnels in DPRK DMZ that might be useful in this, but I have never seen anything written about such a thing.
Not really. Most pot smokers I know will smoke until they pass out, or run out.
I'll bet the drug smugglers didn't allow many illegals to use the tunnel. Too much of an investment to take the chance of Jose gettin' caught and spillin' the beans! Also, I would think that any border wall or fence would certainly include vibration detectors of some kind.
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