During an investigation into a local drug smuggling network, federal authorities uncovered a tunnel that went from a residence in the Mexican border city of Tijuana to a warehouse in southern California.

The underground tube, which was discovered on Friday, is 1,774 feet long, 61 feet deep, and four feet wide. It was located on Otay Mesa, roughly 300 feet north of the US-Mexico border wall.

Big Border Tunnel Used To Smuggle Drugs

A rail track, metal-beamed walls, power, and a ventilation system were all included in the tunnel. Homeland Security Investigations officers discovered it while conducting surveillance on a National City home that had been used by a criminal group to store 28 kilos of illegal cocaine in March.

Officers saw Luz de Luna Olmos and Vanessa Ramirez, both of San Diego, driving away in a pickup truck from their residence at approximately 11:45 am on Friday and stopped at a Harbor Freight Tools shop to retrieve cardboard boxes from a dumpster. They then went into the store and bought wheel carts, which are often used to haul large objects.

The defendants came home and carried the boxes into the house. Olmos left the house at about 1:20 pm and went to a Walmart shop to get more boxes. Ramirez traveled to the warehouse in San Diego an hour after leaving the residence. She left the warehouse at about 4:40 pm and returned home, with the agents following in her footsteps.

Agents from Homeland Security Investigations stopped five vehicles coming and going from the house, warehouse, or both, and confiscated narcotics shipments from the cars and the house, according to Daily Mail. The kind of narcotics confiscated might indicate a change away from the multi-ton shipments of marijuana that were frequently discovered before California's recreational marijuana legalization in 2019.

Because of their tiny size and lack of odor, hard narcotics such as heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl are often transported via legitimate border crossings from Mexico. Smugglers, on the other hand, benefit from tunnels since they can transport large goods quickly.

The tunnel exited the United States at a run-down warehouse known as Amistad Park, on a roadway that is bustling during the day with enormous semitrailers but quiet at night. Armed soldiers stood vigil over a tiny shaft with a ladder leading down into the tunnel on Monday.

According to a federal criminal complaint filed in San Diego, after scoping out a property that had previously been used to conceal drugs, investigators began making traffic stops of vehicles that had been there or at a warehouse near the border, discovering boxes full of cocaine, as per NBC News.

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Texas Representative Highlights Urgency To Pass Legislation

The discovery of a vast 1,700-foot cross-border tunnel used by drug traffickers to carry drugs into the United States, according to Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, is a wake-up call for politicians in Washington DC to implement legislation to address the problem.

Last year, Pfluger filed legislation that would require CBP to prepare a counter illegal cross-border tunnel operations strategy plan and provide regular updates to Congress on its execution. It also gives CBP funds for anti-tunnel interdiction and associated actions.

That bill received bipartisan approval in the House in April but has yet to be voted on in the Senate. Democrats, as-stated by Rep. August Pfluger, are dragging their feet on the issue. The finding of the tunnel comes as the southern border issue continues. In April, almost 234,000 migrant interactions occurred at the southern border, and that figure is projected to climb if the Title 42 public health order is withdrawn at the end of the month.

The order, which has been used to deport a majority of migrants at the border since March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is set to expire on May 23, but it is presently being challenged in court by a group of two dozen Republican states, Fox News reported.

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