U.S.-Mexico Drug Tunnel Found
NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2001

NOGALES, Ariz. (UPI) – Federal agents found a 25-foot tunnel used by drug smugglers and seized 840 pounds of cocaine worth $6.5 million on the wholesale market, U.S. Customs officials said Tuesday.

The hand-dug tunnel was used by drug smugglers after they crossed the border from Mexico in a partially covered concrete aqueduct called the Nogales Wash, said Matt Allen, a U.S. Customs supervisor. It was the sixth drug smuggling tunnel found in Nogales in the past six years.

An 840-pound load of cocaine, worth an estimated wholesale value of $6.5 million, was found stashed in a home where the tunnel exited. The value of the 198 bricks of cocaine would probably be even higher in a major U.S. city, Customs spokesman Roger Maier said.

During an investigation Monday agents noticed a suspicious pile of dirt in the house less than a mile from the border and called the owner to look inside, Allen said. When the owner failed to show up, they called the Nogales Sewer Department to inspect a nearby sewer.

The city crews placed a robotically controlled camera in the sewer line, but it struck a man-made obstruction. The crews tried to move the camera beyond the obstruction but could not until a DEA agent volunteered to crawl into the 24-inch pipe and pulled the camera.

"He crawled 500 feet pulling the sewer camera and cable until he found a hinged flap in the area of the home," Allen said.

A search warrant was then obtained and agents found the cache of cocaine inside the home and the tunnel leading from the home to the sewer line.

The smugglers and illegal aliens use the Nogales Wash to enter the United States, climb through manholes along the aqueduct to enter the sewer system, and then use hand-dug tunnels to access homes in the border town, staying out of sight all the time, Allen said.

In the past, tunnels have been found that crossed underneath the border in Arizona and California, according to Maier. In 1999, one was discovered in Douglas, Ariz., with ventilation and lighting, he said.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International