No one can say that Mexican drug smugglers don’t work hard for the money. They’ll go to great lengths to deliver their valuable cargo to awaiting hands in the U.S. They have little option but to face their drug lord bosses who won’t react kindly should their mission fail. Immigrants swarming like flies on a fresh cow pie have made most of their southern border routes impossible to sneak through. But fear of an unwanted bullet to the head often brings out the innovative juices in a person.…
Imagine if you will, an elaborate tunnel buried six stories underground with a smooth comfortable walkway and tall enough to accommodate an upright Michael Jordan. Now imagine it running the length of six football fields. The vision you’re seeing is almost exactly what U.S. authorities found running from Tijuana to an opening on a cement floor in a San Diego warehouse.
Now, let’s accessorize your vision with electricity, proper ventilation to provide maximum airflow, and professionally constructed wood support beams to brace the walls and ceiling. You now have the entire picture.
Authorities have no idea how long the tunnel’s been there. All they know is how they were able to seize…get this…1,762 pounds of cocaine, 3.5 pounds of heroin, and 165 pounds of meth. That’s an overload of dangerous narcotics that won’t be arriving in Your Town, USA.
Smaller, less elaborate tunnels have been discovered in the past but they were mainly used for smuggling bulk supplies of marijuana. Narcotics are typically smuggled in through border crossings since the loads are much smaller and easier to hide.
The drug seizure confirmed what U.S. authorities feared the most. Mexican drug cartels lost oil-tanker loads of pesos with the legalization of marijuana in many states. They have little to no option now but to launch a narcotics campaign to get more people to try their life-destroying products, so for the first time ever, they’re bringing it in bulk amounts so there’s plenty to go around.
The tunnel came out at a plain-Jane warehouse on a street in San Diego that saw lots of truck traffic during the day but was hardly used at night. The night of the seizure, armed thugs were keeping an eye on a ladder that led from the hole in the floor to the tunnel below.
U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, Randy Grossman, applauded the victory. “There is no more light at the end of this narco-tunnel,” he said. “We will take down every subterranean smuggling route we find to keep illicit drugs from reaching our streets and destroying our families and communities.”
The Mexican drug smugglers got away clean this time, but six Southern California residents between the ages of 31 and 55 weren’t so lucky. Their names have yet to be disclosed as the investigation continues.
Here’s the difficult part. By Federal law, all discovered drug tunnels are required to be filled in with concrete. As big as this tunnel is, expect there to be a shortage of the stuff for a while.
