Drug Smuggling Tunnel Ran Under US-Mexico Border

Photo: Entrance to a drug smuggling tunnel in a home in Calexico, California. The tunnel came out in Mexico. Photo Courtesy U.S. Attorney’s Office

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San Diego, CA - Resourceful drug smugglers have gotten creative with real estate. They brought land and built a house in Calexico, east of San Diego, for the purpose of concealing a tunnel used to get marijuana into the US, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The other end of the 415 yard tunnel came out in a restaurant in Mexicali, Mexico.

When the home was constructed, the smugglers told the construction company to leave a hole in the foundation so a safe could be concealed in the floor. Instead, that's where the tunnel came out.

Four people have been arrested--two in California and two in Arizona. In total, authorities seized almost 3,000 pounds of marijuana worth millions of dollars.

Dave Shaw, special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations San Diego, said in a written statement, “I’d emphasize that our investigation in this case is still very much ongoing, but preliminarily we believe the shuttering of this latest sophisticated smuggling tunnel has dealt a serious blow to yet another narcotics trafficking organization that was determined to succeed at all costs.”

The tunnel is the 12th large-scale operational drug smuggling tunnel discovered along the California border since 2006.