Hi-tech tunnel found at US-Mexico border.

Found beneath the Mexico-U.S. border: The hi-tech drug tunnel with its own electricity supply and even a miniature railway line

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 12:10 PM on 4th November 2010

• 20 tons of cannabis worth $20million found in second largest haul in U.S. history
• Entrance to 600-yard tunnel hidden underneath secret 'door' inside warehouse

Federal authorities have made one of the largest marijuana seizures in the U.S., confiscating more than 20 tons of cannabis smuggled into the country through an elaborate underground tunnel.

Mexican authorities also seized more than four tons of cannabis from a warehouse on their side of the border.

The marijuana has a street value of $20million, but it is the discovery of the hi-tech passageway, which boasted lighting, ventilation and even a miniature railway, which has stunned U.S. customs officials.

Seized: A soldier from the Mexican Army guards marijuana packages found after a bust on the US-Mexico border

'This is obviously the work of a cartel,' said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton, who held a news conference outside the warehouse in an industrial park near the Otay Mesa truck crossing, across from Tijuana.

Officials said the lightning-speed, 12-hour operation started last night when U.S. authorities watching a warehouse under surveillance followed a tractor-trailer as it left the building.

ICE agents called in the California Highway Patrol, whose officers stopped the rig near Temecula, California, about 60 miles away. 

Smuggler's entrance: John Morton (left) stands inside the warehouse where federal agents found a huge drug tunnel

Authorities say they found 10 tons of marijuana inside the tractor-trailer. The driver, a U.S. citizen, and his Mexican wife were arrested and will be arraigned in San Diego tomorrow.

Authorities quickly obtained a federal search warrant to enter the warehouse, where they discovered 10 to 15 more tons of marijuana, Morton said.

They also found the opening to the tunnel, which ran for 600 yards under the border and linked it to another warehouse in Mexico, Morton said. 

The tunnel had lighting, ventilation and a rail system to send loads of illegal drugs into California.

The tunnel ran for 600 yards from Tijuana on the Mexican side of the border  to Otay Mesa in the U.S.

The clandestine passageway was too low to stand up in and was believed to be in operation for only a brief time, Morton said.

Officials said the seizure was the largest ever in California and was believed to be the second-largest in the U.S. The largest amount of marijuana seized by Drug Enforcement Administration agents was in 2008 in Oregon, where 33 tons were found, DEA special agent Ralph W. Partridge said.

Today's announcement comes only weeks after Mexican officials made their largest marijuana seizure ever, confiscating a massive 134 tons believed to belong to the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

Morton said officials haven't determined which cartel was running the drug tunnel.

Officials have found 125 underground tunnels along the border built by Mexican drug cartels to elude detection since the early 1990s, ICE officials said. Of those, 75 have been found in the past four years. Many were discovered before they were completed. 

The majority were found along the California and Arizona borders with Mexico.

Morton credited the increase in tunnel discoveries to "good old-fashioned law enforcement" efforts, with agents keeping a close eye on the thousands of warehouses storing goods moved back and forth across the border.

Morton said such a rapid bust, which came after a month-long investigation, was possible because of cooperation between U.S. and Mexican authorities. 

He said that co-operation is better than ever, making it tougher for Mexican drug traffickers to move their loads and forcing their smuggling businesses to move underground.

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326481/Authorities-seize-20-tons-cannabis-smuggled-US-Mexico.html#ixzz14JgHRVbC