Border Patrol finds cross-border smuggling tunnel near San Diego

U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday said its agents had found a cross-border narcotics smuggling tunnel between Tijuana, Mexico, and the San Diego area. The tunnel was nearly 3,000 feet long, 42 inches tall, 28 inches wide, and about 50 feet underground at its deepest point, the agency said. It was equipped with electrical wiring, lights, ventilation systems, and a track to enable speedy transportation of contraband, according to the Border Patrol.

Agents first discovered the tunnel in April, when it was still under construction, the Border Patrol said. The tunnel was incomplete, but had already extended more than 1,000 feet into U.S. territory. It was likely meant to terminate near or inside a commercial warehouse past the Otay Mesa border checkpoint, according to the Border Patrol.

Why did the Border Patrol wait to release information about the tunnel until Wednesday? Agents hadn’t located the tunnel’s entrance on the Mexican side until Monday. A joint investigation by Homeland Security agents and the Mexican government pinpointed the entrance inside a home in the Nueva Tijuana neighborhood. The tunnel’s mouth had recently been concealed with freshly laid tile, according to the Border Patrol.

What was the Border Patrol planning to do about the tunnel? The agency said it would hire contractors to pour thousands of gallons of concrete into the passage. Investigators scheduled the tunnel for immediate remediation, the agency said. Border Patrol teams have found and blocked more than 95 tunnels in the San Diego area since 1993, according to the agency’s website.

What else did the agency announce on Wednesday? The U.S. Senate confirmed Rodney Scott as the new head of Customs and Border Protection. Scott has worked for the agency since 1992, when he became a Border Patrol agent. Scott is the first to climb the ranks from trainee agent to agency commissioner, according to Customs and Border Protection.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on a DEA bust of illegal marijuana operations in California.