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Tons of marijuana seized in cross-border tunnel
Source: Agencies |
November 18, 2011, Friday
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AN estimated 17 tons of marijuana were seized when US authorities discovered a cross-border tunnel they said on Wednesday was one of the most significant secret smuggling passages ever found on the US-Mexico border.
The tunnel discovered on Tuesday stretched about 400 meters and linked warehouses in San Diego in the US and Tijuana in Mexico.
US authorities seized about nine tons of marijuana in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, according to Derek Benner, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent in charge of investigations in San Diego. Mexican authorities recovered about eight tons south of the border.
Tunnel walls were lined with wood supports and equipped with lighting and ventilation systems. The tunnel was about 1.2 meters high and 0.91 meters wide.
Two men in a truck allegedly seen leaving the San Diego side with about 3 tons of pot were pulled over on Tuesday by a California Highway Patrol officer and arrested.
Cesar Beltran and Ruben Gomez face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, according to Alana Robinson, chief of the US attorney's narcotics enforcement section in San Diego.
Cross-border tunnels have proliferated in recent years, but the latest find is one of the more significant, based on the amount of drugs seized. Raids last November on two tunnels linking San Diego and Tijuana netted a combined 50 tons of marijuana on both sides of the border, two of the largest pot busts in US history. Those passages were lined with rail tracks, lighting and ventilation.
Tunnels have emerged as a major strategy to smuggle marijuana. Smugglers also use wooden boats to ferry bales of marijuana up the Pacific coast and low-flying aircraft that look like hang-gliders to make lightning-quick drops.
The tunnel discovered on Tuesday stretched about 400 meters and linked warehouses in San Diego in the US and Tijuana in Mexico.
US authorities seized about nine tons of marijuana in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, according to Derek Benner, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent in charge of investigations in San Diego. Mexican authorities recovered about eight tons south of the border.
Tunnel walls were lined with wood supports and equipped with lighting and ventilation systems. The tunnel was about 1.2 meters high and 0.91 meters wide.
Two men in a truck allegedly seen leaving the San Diego side with about 3 tons of pot were pulled over on Tuesday by a California Highway Patrol officer and arrested.
Cesar Beltran and Ruben Gomez face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, according to Alana Robinson, chief of the US attorney's narcotics enforcement section in San Diego.
Cross-border tunnels have proliferated in recent years, but the latest find is one of the more significant, based on the amount of drugs seized. Raids last November on two tunnels linking San Diego and Tijuana netted a combined 50 tons of marijuana on both sides of the border, two of the largest pot busts in US history. Those passages were lined with rail tracks, lighting and ventilation.
Tunnels have emerged as a major strategy to smuggle marijuana. Smugglers also use wooden boats to ferry bales of marijuana up the Pacific coast and low-flying aircraft that look like hang-gliders to make lightning-quick drops.
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