US border agents uncover smuggling tunnel crossing US-Mexico border, arrest 23 Chinese nationals and seven Mexicans
Border patrol agents ran across group of 30 people early hours of Saturday
Some of the group fled back into hole in the ground on sighting agents
Hole led into the cross-border tunnel
Authorities say the tunnel starts at a building in Tijuana, hundreds of feet from the US-Mexico border post in San Diego
Tunnel stretches less than a mile long into the US
Agents arrested, 23 Chinese nationals and seven Mexican nationals
US border patrol agents discovered hidden tunnel leading from Mexico [photo]
U.S. border agents, Saturday discovered a new hidden tunnel running from Mexico that led to the arrest of 30 illegal immigrants.
Around 1.30 am, agents patrolling at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California, saw a group of several dozen people and tried to approach them for questioning.
Some people in the group ran back into what the agents discovered to be the exit of a cross-border tunnel with a ladder inside near Drucker Lane and Siempre Viva Road.
The agents made 30 arrests both inside and outside the tunnel. Of those arrested, 23 were Chinese nationals and seven were Mexican nationals.
The tunnel runs close to the US-Mexico border at San Diego
The tunnel Mexican authorities said began in a building in the Garita de Otay area in Tijuana, approximately 328 feet south of the US-Mexico border in San Diego, Otay Mesa port of entry three miles from the border crossing bridge.
The opening to the tunnel had been covered by dry bush and branches.
Mexican authorities are working to determine who is responsible for the build-out and operation of the smuggling tunnel.
Authorities say this is the 13th underground passageway discovered along California’s border with Mexico since 2006.
The use of such tunnels is not new, but they have typically been used for drug smuggling.
As of 4pm on Saturday, US Customs and Border Protection [CBP] agent Eduardo Olmos told NBC 7 that no drugs had been discovered inside the tunnel.
Mexican authorities [photo], monitored the tunnel from the Tijuana side of the border, trying to figure out who built and operated the tunnel
Mexican police cordon off the building [photo], where the smuggling tunnel reportedly began, on Calle Mar Barmejo in the Garita de Otay area in Tijuana, approximately 328 feet south of the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego and three miles from the border crossing bridge.
According to a release by CBP, this latest tunnel could be an extension of an incomplete tunnel previously discovered and seized by Mexican authorities.
‘While subterranean tunnels are not a new occurrence along the California-Mexico border, they are more commonly utilized by transnational criminal organizations to smuggle narcotics.
‘However, as this case demonstrates, law enforcement has also identified instances where such tunnels were used to facilitate human smuggling.’
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