Border Drug Tunnel Featured Electric Railway
And to think that much of Amtrak is still operating with diesel engines! But I digress…
A smuggling tunnel running from Tijuana in Mexico to San Diego in the United States, equipped with lighting, ventilation and an electric rail system, has been uncovered by US authorities. It is one of the most sophisticated secret passages to be discovered along the US-Mexico border.
Three men who authorities claim worked as drivers have been charged with possession of marijuana and cocaine with intent to distribute. They face prison sentences of between 10 years and life if convicted.
Authorities who found the underground network seized 8.5 tonnes of marijuana and 148kg (327lb) of cocaine. The tunnel – dug 11 metres (35 feet) underground, 1.3 metres high and 1 metre wide – was shut down before the drugs could be distributed.
The tunnel, which zigzags the length of nearly six football fields, links warehouses in Tijuana and San Diego’s Otay Mesa – an industrial area filled with nondescript warehouses, convenient for loading trucks with drugs. …
As US border security has heightened on land, Mexican drug cartels have turned to ultralight aircraft, small fishing boats and tunnels to smuggle drugs. More than 75 underground passages have been discovered along the border since 2008, designed largely to smuggle marijuana.
