Border Tunnel In San Diego Longest Ever Found: DEA

SAN DIEGO, CA — A smuggling tunnel found last summer running three quarters of a mile between Baja California and Otay Mesa was the longest one ever documented along the Southwest U.S. border, federal officials announced Wednesday.

The San Diego Tunnel Task Force began mapping the 4,309-foot subterranean passageway following its discovery in late August, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Most of the underground channel, which originated beneath a small industrial building in Tijuana about a half-mile west of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, is in the United States, the DEA reported.

The shaft is about 5 1/2 feet tall and two feet wide, and has an average depth of 70 feet from the surface, according to the federal agency. It has an extensive rail system, forced-air ventilation, high-voltage electrical cables and panels, an elevator at the tunnel entrance, and a complex drainage system.

"As efforts to strengthen security on our southern border increase, Mexican drug cartels are forced underground to smuggle their deadly drugs into the United States," said DEA Special Agent in Charge John Callery. "The sophistication of this tunnel demonstrates the determination and monetary resources of the cartels."

The second-longest cross-border tunnel into the United States, discovered in San Diego in 2014, was 2,966 feet long, the DEA reported.

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-City News Service