‘Longest ever’ smuggling tunnel discovered on US-Mexico border

'Longest ever' smuggling tunnel discovered on US-Mexico border
The sophisticated tunnel had a rail track. Source: Reuters
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Daily US Times, California: The US officials say they have discovered the longest smuggling tunnel to date in the US-Mexico border.

The enormous 4,309ft long tunnel includes a lift, rail track, drainage, and air ventilation systems, and high voltage electrical cables.

The tunnel established connections between an industrial site in the Mexican city of Tijuana to the San Diego area in California.

Border tunnels discovered
Border tunnels discovered. Photo source: ABC 10 News

US officials did not mention any suspect and there was no arrest from the site and no drugs have found.

But according to the information provided by the US government, Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, one of the largest drug-trafficking organizations in the world, operates in the area.

The founder of the cartel Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, is serving life in prison in the US.

Mexican officials discovered the tunnel entrance in August last year. Then US investigators mapped it, before releasing the findings on Wednesday.

There was no arrest reported and no drug have been found. Source: Reuters

US Customs and Border Protection said the tunnel has an average depth of 70ft (21m) below the surface, with the tunnel being 5.5ft high and 2ft wide. US officials said they are not sure how long it took to build it.

Cardell Morant, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego, issued a statement that indicates that this tunnel took time to build and the efforts of transnational criminal organizations will undertake to facilitate cross-border smuggling.

The statement added that Several hundred sandbags were discovered blocking a suspected former exit of the tunnel in San Diego’s Otay Mesa industrial warehouse area. The main tunnel had an incomplete offshoot.

Since 2016, more than a dozen sophisticated tunnels have been found on the US-Mexico border on the California side.

Longest-ever border tunnel found in Otay Mesa

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