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Man charged with trafficking millions of dollars worth of drugs via tunnel from Mexico
The Los Angeles Times ^ | April 11, 2020 | Gary Warth

Posted on 04/14/2020 6:38:53 AM PDT by Jagermonster

SAN DIEGO — Federal authorities have charged a man known to have lived in Chula Vista with trafficking millions of dollars in illegal drugs through a tunnel that stretched from Mexico to a warehouse in Otay Mesa.

Rogelio Flores Guzman, 54, a Mexican national with legal residency in the U.S., was charged Friday with trafficking in fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

Flores, who was also known to have lived in Las Vegas and Victorville, was taken into custody Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport as he was boarding a plane to Guadalajara, Mexico. He was arraigned Friday afternoon in federal court via live video because of COVID-19 precautions.

The judge ordered him detained without bond after the government argued that he was a flight risk.

“Cross-border tunnels always spark fascination, but in reality they are a very dangerous means for major drug dealers to move large quantities of narcotics with impunity until we intervene,” said U.S. Atty. Robert Brewer.

On March 20, federal agents with a search warrant discovered the exit point of an underground transnational tunnel in a commercial warehouse occupied by Big Brands Warehouse Sales Corp. on Otay Center Drive, just northwest of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.

The tunnel stretched more than 2,000 feet to a warehouse in Tijuana, with an average depth of 31 feet and a width of about 3 feet through most of its passageway.

Agents estimate the tunnel has been in existence for several months due to the advanced construction in several portions of the passageway, including reinforced walls, ventilation, lighting and an underground rail system.

Agents found about 575 packages inside the tunnel. Field tests found...

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Mexico; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: wod
Saw nevermorelenore's comment on BeauBo's thread (BFBC Gets $569M Border Wall Construction Contract Modification) about cross-border tunnels, and wondered what this sort of tunnel looked like, so I did a search and this article from yesterday popped right up. I guess "transnational tunnels" are not that uncommon.
1 posted on 04/14/2020 6:38:53 AM PDT by Jagermonster
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To: Jagermonster

The tunnel ended in America in a Los Pollos Hermanos warehouse...


2 posted on 04/14/2020 6:40:34 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with islamic terrorists - they want to die for allah and we want to kill them.)
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To: Jagermonster

They’re not sending their best.


3 posted on 04/14/2020 6:41:30 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Jagermonster
Feds Find Smuggling Tunnel Linking San Diego to Tijuana, Seize $29 Million in Drugs
4 posted on 04/14/2020 6:42:32 AM PDT by Jagermonster ("God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16, NKJV.)
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To: Jagermonster

.


5 posted on 04/14/2020 6:42:36 AM PDT by sauropod (Pelosi Galore: We know she's lying when we see her dentures flying.)
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To: Jagermonster

I guess he should have given the CIA the cut of the profits they demanded.


6 posted on 04/14/2020 6:43:41 AM PDT by eyeamok
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To: Jagermonster

Tunnels are worthy of poison gas, boiling oil or various explosives. Wait until the are occupied for maximum effect.


7 posted on 04/14/2020 8:33:08 AM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: 2banana
Los Pollos Hermanos

The Chicken brothers...

8 posted on 04/14/2020 8:34:33 AM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: Jagermonster

These kind of tunnels are not unknown, but not exactly common either.

They are the work of well resourced criminal cartels, who have also been known to use large submarines and jet aircraft.

Jose Six-Pack and the local teenagers are not likely to tunnel 31 feet deep for 2,000 feet, especially not without killing themselves in the process.

The great bulk of tunneling attacks will be deterred or defeated by the new Wall System design.

At the high end of the spectrum, where cartels can hire International jewel thieves, circus acrobats, and buy Chinese tunneling machines that could bore traffic tunnels under the sea, it is a different kind of problem, requiring a different approach to be cost effective.

Just as no barrier is going to cost-effectively stop the very last 1 out of a billion attempted climbers (Mount Everest is routinely climbed with ropes and ladders), no barrier is going to be absolutely immune to extraordinarily deep tunneling.


9 posted on 04/14/2020 8:55:21 AM PDT by BeauBo
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To: Jagermonster

Mexican national with legal residency in the U.S.

Democrat approved just another vote.


10 posted on 04/14/2020 8:56:47 AM PDT by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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