The cocaine was worth about $22 million.
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The discovery came six months after US and Mexican investigators ferreted out a well-appointed tunnel stretching nearly as far underneath the worldwide line between warehouses in the same two border communities. Inside the tunnel they found 68 bales of marijuana weighing 1,638 pounds.
The haul, worth £15 million, was seized by federal agents, who believe the 874-yard tunnel is the longest ever found between the U.S. state and Mexico. On the Tijuana side, the tunnel was connected to an elevator that ascended into the house. “Whether a grandiose super tunnel or a humble rabbit hole, they home in and are prepared to take whatever action is necessary to secure our border”, Duffy added. ” … This tunnel exit is literally a hole in the ground in the middle of this area”. Another tunnel, this one measuring 140 feet long, was found just two days before when a border agent almost fell into it in Calexico, California.
The extremely narrow tunnel – only three feet wide – was unusual among the 75 drug tunnels discovered on the US-Mexico border in the last five years. Investigators then observed the truck being driven to a parking lot on Imperial Avenue near 30th Street, she said, where the dumpster would be unloaded to waiting vehicles.
Investigators are not sure when the tunnel was finished, workers near the San Diego commercial lot have assured the tenants arrived at the location almost a year ago and sold wooden pallets at a cheap price.
Authorities saw a rubbish bin forklifted on to a truck at the San Diego site on April 13 and followed it to a auto park in San Diego, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations investigator said in a criminal complaint.
Six men have been arrested in connection with the Otay Mesa discovery, and face various charges including conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and conspiracy to use a border tunnel. Officials later confirmed it was carrying 11,030 pounds of marijuana and 2,240 pounds of cocaine.
Agents seen walking around warehouse in Otay Mesa where a drug tunnel was found.
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“The search warrant affidavit and charging documents allege the traffickers scouted properties in the area and selected the Third Street parcel in a residential section of Calexico”, the United States attorney for the Southern District of California said in a statement. It was the 13th sophisticated secret passage found along California’s border since 2006.
