Tunnel Is Found Under Border

SAN DIEGO —  Authorities on Wednesday discovered what they described as a sophisticated tunnel used for smuggling drugs beneath the U.S.-Mexico border in rural San Diego County.

The tunnel ended inside a farmhouse about 1,000 feet north of the border fence in the community of Boulevard, Calif., about 55 miles east of downtown San Diego, said Donald Thornhill Jr., a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.

“It was in a house, under a staircase--sophisticated,” Thornhill said Wednesday night.

He said the 4-by-4-foot entrance led to a reinforced passageway about 20 feet underground as it crossed the international boundary east of the border town of Tecate, Calif.

Agents believe the tunnel may have been in use for two or three years.

No arrests were made as federal agents searched the property, a former pig farm, but agents found 500 pounds of marijuana whose freshness suggested the tunnel had been used recently, Thornhill said.

He said there could be arrests in coming days.

Officials believe the tunnel was used by the Arellano Felix drug gang based in Tijuana. Thornhill declined to say what steered agents to the site. The tunnel appeared to lead to a building on the Mexican side.

Thornhill said the property was unoccupied except for a caretaker who was not viewed as a suspect.

The boulder-strewn countryside there has been used frequently to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country. It was not immediately known whether the tunnel was used for that purpose.

The discovery of the tunnel was reminiscent of the uncovering of a “narcotunnel” in 1993 under the border near the Otay Mesa port of entry in San Diego. That tunnel, discovered by Mexican federal authorities hunting the killers of the Roman Catholic cardinal of Guadalajara, extended about a quarter-mile onto the U.S. side but never reached the warehouse that was to be its terminus.

Authorities said the passage was sealed in 1998.