U.S. Border Patrol has discovered two underground tunnels dug beneath the California-Mexico border:
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.
The first tunnel was found by members of the Border Search Trauma and Rescue after agents intercepted four men trying to cross the All-American Canal with 25-vacuum sealed packages of methamphetamine Sunday. One of the men was apprehended, but the other three fled back to Mexico.
Border Patrol agents working in the Tijuana River Valley discovered the second, incomplete tunnel on the Tijuana-San Diego border, west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. While incomplete, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego said it was 220 yards long with lighting and a rail system with a cart. The entryway was discovered at a residence in Tijuana near the U.S. border fence in Colonia Castillo.
More than 80 smuggling tunnels have been under the U.S.-Mexico border since 2006, mostly in California and Arizona.
