Three massive cartel tunnels were discovered by U.S. authorities this week–connecting the U.S. and Mexico. The tunnels were presumably used for the trafficking narcotics and human beings. The business of narcotics, human smuggling, and human trafficking are under tight control of Mexican cartels in Northern Mexico.

The U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agency (ICE) has released details on a tunnel found near Nogales, Arizona that was 449 feet long and aimed to provide a Mexican cartel smuggling route under the U.S./Mexico border. Sixty feet of the tunnel is reported to be under Mexico, with another 389 feet under U.S. soil. A total of 101 cross-border tunnels have been discovered in Nogales, Arizona alone since 1990.

Two other under-border tunnels were discovered by the San Diego Tunnel Task Force in Southern California and was a reported 600 yards in length. Fox News’ William Le Jeunesse reported that one of the tunnels involved the arrest of a 73-year-old woman in the U.S. La Jeunesse reported the statements of an assistant U.S. attorney on the case:

“Here we are again, foiling cartel plans to sneak millions of dollars of illegal drugs through secret passageways that cost millions of dollars to build,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy. “Going underground is not a good business plan. We have promised to locate these super tunnels and keep powerful drug cartels from taking their business underground and out of sight, and once again, we have delivered on that promise.”

In his reporting on the area’s second tunnel discovered this week, La Jeunesse wrote:

“The second tunnel was detected Thursday morning. It also originates in Tijuana and stretches more than 700 yards. It is equipped with a multi-tiered electric rail system and an array of ventilation equipment.”

The use of railways in Mexican cartel tunnels under the U.S./Mexico border are nothing new. Breitbart News reported in November 2013 on another such matter where such a tunnel was found extending from Tijuana, Mexico into an industrial park in San Diego, California. That tunnel had an electric rail system, electric lighting, and its own ventilation system.

This reporter was given a tour of the Border Patrol’s El Paso sector in mid-2013 by representatives of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) Local 1929. On that tour, NBPC representatives revealed that a tunnel had been discovered extending from Juarez, Mexico into El Paso, Texas–underneath the Rio Grande River. In that instance, smugglers had bored from an unknown location in Mexico into a large drainage culvert on the U.S. side of the border. The culvert then extended into an El Paso, Texas neighborhood.

Sylvia Longmire, Breitbart Texas’ border security expert and contributing editor, said that drug tunnels are notoriously difficult to find. “I find it interesting that ICE is applauding investigative skills over emerging tunnel detection technology.” Longmire added, “Based on interviews I’ve conducted with ICE officials, my understanding is that roughly half of drug tunnels are discovered via anonymous tips, which bolsters my theory that while border technology is useful and development should continue, it’s not the fix for all our border problems.”

The United Nations (UN) 2012 report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Central America and the Caribbean raised special concerns over such tunnels and their ability to get persons illegally into the U.S., specifically from nations in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. Breitbart News previously reported that persons from terrorism-prone regions were entering Central America and then using the same pathways that Mexican and Central American illegal immigrants were using to enter the U.S.

Follow Brandon Darby on Twitter: @brandondarby