The US and Mexican police have found what could be the largest
underground passageway used for smuggling drugs into the US,
Guillermo Gonzalez, deputy commander of police in the northwest
Mexican city of Tijuana, told local press on Thursday.
The so-called "narcotunnel," which is now under police guard, is
at least 60 meters long and 26 meters deep. It links a warehouse in
Tijuana to an exit in Otay, close to the city of San Diego in the
southwestern US state of California.
It is the third such tunnel found linking Tijuana and San
Diegoin around 10 days. Several dozens of such tunnels have been
found since first was detected in the mid-1980s -- including more
than 15 in the last five years -- all designed to smuggle drugs to
the world's largest consumer.
The tunnel passes under a large metal fence, set up in 1990 by
US authorities trying to halt the flow of undocumented
migrants.
Gonzalez said that the exit of the tunnel was found by US
customs and migration officials, who called in their finding to
their Tijuana counterparts.
(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2006)
