14 DAY TRIAL // A drug smuggling tunnel built between Tijuana, in Mexico, and the States has been found and shut down by US authorities.
According to the Daily Mail, federal officials have discovered the tunnel after being tipped off about contractors buying power tools, drills, and construction equipment.
It links Tijuana with an industrial area in San Diego, California. The Otay Mesa area is full of warehouses.
Federal officers received the tip from an informant and stumbled upon the most sophisticated tunnel of its kind found so far. It is equipped with an electric rail system, lighting, and its own ventilation system.
"Shored up wood frames and traps and rails are inside," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Laura Duffy says in a statement.
She has mentioned that police have found 327 lbs. (148 kg) of cocaine and they have also seized 8.5 tons (17,000 lbs.) of marijuana from smugglers. However, the tunnel itself has never been used.
"I think we're 100 percent confident as a group here [that] they did not move one gram of drugs through that tunnel," notes Bill Sherman, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's San Diego Field Division.
Sherman tells CBS 8 that several businesses rent out warehouses in Otay Mesa, making a drug smuggling business hard to detect.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Sandweg estimates that the confiscated shipment adds up to a value of $12 million (€8.85 million).
"This action is another huge setback for the Mexican cartels, which invest vast amounts of time and money to build them. These criminal organizations should not mistakenly believe tunnels will be their ticket to success," he states for CBS.
The tunnel itself cost $1.5 million (€1.1 million) to build and make functional. The operation has also ended with three arrests on Thursday.