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A suspected drug-smuggling tunnel found last week connecting Tijuana and the United States is so long authorities need oxygen tanks in order to reach the end of it.
According to Latin Times, Mexican authorities were able to locate the tunnel after receiving an anonymous tip.
When Mexico’s National Guard arrived at the location, they reportedly found someone digging on the property.
“It’s attached to a tunnel that had been taken out of commission in 2022. We have three tunnels in that same area that have been constructed in the past,” Baja California’s Secretary of Public Safety, Leopoldo Tizoc Aguilar Duran told Border Report.
The tunnel, which neither American nor Mexican authorities have confirmed has been used to smuggle drugs, is reportedly so long that they have not been able to locate an exit point due to a lack of oxygen.
Latin Times reports Aguilar and his team are currently in the process of getting the oxygen tanks they will need to do so.
In 2022, authorities discovered another underground drug smuggling tunnel, the 90th one found in the Southern District of California since 1993.
That same year, Mexican authorities discovered another 793 foot tunnel equipped with reinforced walls, a rail system, electricity and lighting, and a ventilation system. It ran from a home in Tijuana to a home in San Diego. It was the second tunnel of its type discovered in the span of less than a month in the area.
The tunnel that was previously found was close to one third of a mile long and ran from Mexico to a warehouse in an industrial area near San Diego’s Otay Mesa border crossing.
Inside that tunnel authorities found 1,762 pounds of cocaine as well as meth and heroin.
This latest tunnel discovery is the first one to have been found in 2024. Latin Times reports that federal law requires United States authorities to fill the local side with concrete anytime tunnels like this are discovered. That, however, will have to wait until after law enforcement is able to acquire enough oxygen tanks to finish their investigation.