DHS Busts MASSIVE Drug Smuggling Tunnel With Rail System and Reinforced Walls Connecting Tijuana to San Diego
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday announced that its Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Tunnel Task Force uncovered a sophisticated cartel tunnel spanning from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego, California.
Four people have been charged for conspiring to distribute more than a ton, $45 million worth, of cocaine.
Two Americans, Gregorio Epifanio Hernandez Lopez and Jose Jimenez of San Diego, were charged. Brandon Escalante Sandoval and Antonio Cortez of Mexico were also charged.
Gregorio Epifanio Hernandez Lopez was also charged with conspiracy to use a cross-border tunnel and conspiracy to import controlled substances.
“The tunnel, stretching about 1,933 feet from Tijuana, Mexico, to a supposed retail store called ‘Buy 4 Less’ near San Diego’s Otay Mesa Port of Entry, was equipped with reinforced walls, rail and ventilation systems, and electricity,” according to DHS.
“The tunnel extended about 1,064 feet from Buy 4 Less to the U.S.-Mexico border and another 800 feet into Mexico.”
The total length of the tunnel was about 1,933 feet.
HSI San Diego acting Special Agent in Charge Kevin Murphy said the bust dealt a “significant blow to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.”
Video footage from inside the tunnel shows the complex tunnel, with stairways leading to the passageway hidden 55 feet beneath the store’s floor.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the reinforced walls in the tunnel were “about four and a half feet” thick.
“This has been something that they’ve been doing for a long time, and now that the borders are closed, they have to find other ways to get drugs in this country, and this was one way they were trying to do it,” Blanche said.