Pubdate: Fri, 27 Jan 2006
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Section: Pg A03
Copyright: 2006 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: John Pomfret
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

TUNNEL FOUND ON MEXICAN BORDER

LOS ANGELES -- U.S. and Mexican authorities have discovered an 
elaborate tunnel that stretches the length of eight football fields 
connecting Mexico and the United States and was apparently used for 
drug trafficking, authorities said Thursday.

The tunnel, unearthed Wednesday, runs from a warehouse in Tijuana and 
surfaces in the United States under an abandoned warehouse west of 
the Otay Mesa port of entry. Mexican authorities announced that they 
had seized about two tons of marijuana on the Mexican end, and 
experts said the passageway bore all the hallmarks of an operation by 
a major drug cartel.

"This is a very, very sophisticated tunnel," Michael Unzueta, special 
agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San 
Diego, said in a telephone interview. "Whether they are designed to 
smuggle drugs, people, weapons or other contraband, these tunnels 
pose a threat to our nation's security."

Unzueta said investigators were tipped off to the existence of the 
tunnel on the Mexican side and passed the information to Mexican law 
enforcement, which obtained a search warrant for the warehouse in 
Tijuana on Wednesday. Mexican authorities allowed reporters into the 
warehouse that night; they reported that they saw about 300 bundles 
of marijuana stacked more than five feet high.

Unzueta described the shaft as technically advanced, with 
electricity, a ventilation system, pumps to remove groundwater, 
cement flooring for traction in steep areas, and wood roofing to 
bolster the walls and ceiling. It had a clearance, he said, of nearly 
six feet and was about five feet wide.

At 2,400 feet, the tunnel is the longest and most sophisticated of 
the 21 underground passageways linking the United States and Mexico 
that have been discovered since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when 
investigations and enforcement were beefed up in the region. Unzueta 
said most of the tunnels have been located in the San Diego area 
because the composite soil of that region is ideal for such work. 
 From 1990 to 2001, 15 tunnels were unearthed.

Unzueta said that a year ago, agents from his agency, the Drug 
Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection's 
Border Patrol unit formed the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, with the 
aim of unearthing the networks.

Federal agents have concluded that drug traffickers and smugglers of 
illegal immigrants have been heading underground to escape tighter 
enforcement along the border. Customs officials announced this week 
that drug seizures at California border crossings rose 24 percent in 
the past fiscal year. More than 127 tons of drugs were seized, the 
vast majority of that marijuana, in the year ending Sept. 30.

Since Jan. 9, authorities in the region have uncovered three other 
tunnels. Those were far from sophisticated -- the kind that agents 
call "gopher holes," being essentially shallow tubes connecting 
Mexico and the United States. In one discovery of a 30-foot-long 
tunnel with an opening of two feet square, federal agents found 
prospective illegal immigrants were still inside, although they 
succeeded in turning around and inching back into Mexico.

Law enforcement cooperation between the United States and Mexico has 
not always been good. Earlier this week, Texas state police were 
stopped along the border from seizing three sport-utility vehicles by 
men in military-style uniforms, who were armed with automatic weapons 
and driving a Humvee. The SUVs were apparently carrying marijuana.

Texas law enforcement officials speculated that the men were Mexican 
soldiers. On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza issued a statement 
asking the Mexican government to "fully investigate" the border 
incident. Mexico's top diplomat, Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto 
Derbez, countered Thursday that the men could just as easily have 
been U.S. troops.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman