CALIFORNIA: In a matter of two days, two underground tunnels dug between the California-Mexico border were discovered by U.S. Border Patrol.
The first was found Monday near Calexico across from Mexicali. The second, though incomplete, was discovered Tuesday in the Tijuana River Valley across from Tijuana’s Avenida International.
The Mexicali-Calexico tunnel measured 230 feet long, four feet high and four feet wide. According to a statement Tuesday from Border Patrol, it had lighting and ventilation and led from a residence in Mexicali.
Members of the Border Search Trauma and Rescue unit found it while searching an area near the All-American Canal after agents intercepted four men trying to cross the canal with 25-vacuum sealed packages of methamphetamine Sunday. Three of the men fled back to Mexico, while the fourth man, described as a Honduran citizen, was caught with a wet suit and scuba gear.
Tuesday, Border Patrol agents working in the Tijuana River Valley discovered an incomplete tunnel on the Tijuana-San Diego border, west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
According to Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego, the 220-yard-long tunnel had lighting, as well as a rail system with a cart.
Though the tunnel had no U.S. exit, Mexican authorities found the entrance at a residence in Tijuana, located near the U.S. border fence in Colonia Castillo.
U.S. federal authorities have found more than 80 smuggling tunnels under the U.S.-Mexico border since 2006, mostly in California and Arizona.
