Mexican drug cartels built a half mile long tunnel that they used to smuggle tons of marijuana from the Mexican border city of Tijuana into San Diego. During the raid, U.S. federal agents seized 2 tons of marijuana, while in Mexico authorities seized 10 tons of marijuana as well for a total of 12 tons that were about to hit American streets.
The massive tunnel spanned the length of eight football fields from a warehouse in Tijuana to an industrial park in San Diego’s Otay Mesa area; the engineering feat featured a railcar system, lighting and ventilation equipment to make it easier for Mexican narcos to move ton quantities of drugs at a time, information provided to Breitbart Texas by Homeland Security Investigations revealed.
The raid at the tunnel comes after six months of investigations by U.S. federal agents who coordinated with their Mexican counterparts to take down the super-tunnel before cartel members began to use it to move massive drug loads.
Tons of cartel drugs ready to hit American streets
“Agents on the HSI-led Tunnel Task force in San Diego have once again dismantled a sophisticated cross-border tunnel that was about to become fully operational,” said Dave Shaw, special agent in charge of HSI San Diego in a prepared statement obtained by Breitbart Texas.
During the raid, when authorities entered the warehouse in Otay Mesa they discovered a large room super-tunnel clutter that had a shaft that went down about 30 feet to the corridor where the drugs were moved.
The shaft found in San Diego that led down to the drug corridor
As part of the raid, federal agents seized two tons of marijuana and arrested six individuals, two of the ringleaders who are from Mexico ended up facing federal drug conspiracy charges.
Authorities identified the two Mexican cartel members as – Isaias Enriquez-Acosta, 53, of Tijuana, Mexico, and Isidro Silva-Acosta, 27, also of Tijuana. The other four suspects were turned over to San Diego County Sheriff’s Office who went after them with state charges.
Photos courtesy of Homeland Security Investigations.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
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