Creation of the latest clandestine passageway to the US from Mexico – this one 15 feet under the ground – was aborted Monday, Sept. 1, when authorities caught the diggers redhanded. They still had 65 yards to go to reach Calexico, a US town bordering the Mexican city of Mexicali.
The eight suspects in custody were small cogs in the sophisticated operation. They had been contracted by someone else to build the cross-border tunnel, complete with its own 3-person elevator, lighting and air conditioning system.
Authorities suspect the well-financed and expertly constructed tunnel was being built by traffickers who intended to use it to smuggle drugs, people, or weapons. They’re not able to identify which criminal organization that might be, especially as a hooded person always delivered payment to the workers.
The builders had already completed 434 feet of the tunnel, that leads from a white, wood-frame house in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Colonia Nueva. The house is about a block from the US border fence. People traveling the 5 foot-by-5 foot tunnel 15 feet beneath the surface would apparently reach the surface by an elevator operated by a hydraulic pulley. Workers had also begun installing rails along the tunnel floor.
The suspects, ranging in age from 27 to 52, have no criminal records in the US according to an ICE spokesperson.
State officers discovered the tunnel during a patrol of the neighborhood when they spotted an armed man outside the residence and investigated. "The detainees confessed that they were looking after the building where a drug tunnel was being built," an official said.
Since the 1990s, at least 75 tunnels have been discovered along the border. This “accidental” discovery makes one wonder how many tunnels currently exist and are fully functioning, delivering their contraband into the US.
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