U.S. Border Patrol
Audio By Carbonatix
United States Border Patrol agents recently uncovered and disabled a large-scale nearly 3,000-foot-long narcotics smuggling tunnel. It was in the process of being constructed by smugglers trying to link Tijuana and San Diego.
The Border Patrol agents assigned to the San Diego Sector Tunnel Team that discovered it noted that it extended more than 1,000 feet into the United States. It ran underneath part of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry and appeared to have a projected exit point near or inside a commercial warehouse in San Diego.
It was equipped with electrical wiring, lighting, ventilation systems, and a track system designed for transporting large quantities of drugs and other contraband.
“When agents made the first entry into the tunnel, they encountered multiple makeshift barricades,” read a U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) press release. These barricades were placed haphazardly by the tunnel workers in an apparent effort to impede agents’ southbound progress and the eventual identification of the tunnel’s origin.
“Agents carefully mapped the tunnel, which measured 2,918 feet in total length. Inside, the tunnel dimensions measured 42 inches in height, 28 inches in width and ran approximately 50 feet underground at its deepest point. On Monday, Border Patrol in collaboration with Homeland Security Investigations and Government of Mexico authorities worked to locate the origin point of the tunnel. The entrance was located within a residence in the Nueva Tijuana neighborhood. Mexican authorities served a warrant at the location and found the entrance to the tunnel had recently been concealed by freshly laid tile.”
This is just the latest in a list of more than 95 tunnels that have been found and decommissioned in the San Diego area by U.S. Border Patrol. Thousands of gallons of concrete will be poured into the tunnel to make it inaccessible to drug smugglers and human traffickers.
Last year, authorities discovered a suspected drug-smuggling tunnel connecting Tijuana and the United States that was so long authorities needed oxygen tanks in order to reach the end of it.
In 2022, another tunnel that was similar to the one Border Patrol agents just shut down was also discovered and closed down. That one, which ran 1,744 feet (close to one third of a mile), also linked Mexico to a warehouse location near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing.