[quote]SAN DIEGO -- An estimated 17 tons of marijuana were seized in the discovery of a cross-border tunnel that authorities said Wednesday was one of the most significant secret drug smuggling passages ever found on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The tunnel discovered Tuesday stretched about 400 yards (400 meters) and linked warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana, authorities said.
U.S. authorities seized about nine tons of marijuana inside a truck and at the warehouse in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, said Derek Benner, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent in charge of investigations in San Diego. Mexican authorities recovered about eight tons south of the border.
Authorities spoke at a news conference near packages of seized dope festooned with labels of Captain America, Sprite and Bud Light. The markings are codes to identify the owners.
Photos taken by Mexican authorities show an entry blocked by bundles that were likely stuffed with marijuana, said Paul Beeson, chief of the Border Patrol's San Diego sector. Tunnel walls were lined with wood supports. The passage was equipped with lighting and ventilation systems.
The tunnel was about four feet high and three feet wide. It dropped about 20 feet (6.1 meters) on the U.S. side.
Two men allegedly seen leaving the warehouse in a truck packed with about three tons of pot were pulled over Tuesday on a highway in suburban La Mesa and arrested. A California Highway Patrol officer was overwhelmed by the smell, according to a federal complaint.
Cesar Beltran and Ruben Gomez each face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, said Alana Robinson, chief of the U.S. attorney's narcotics enforcement section in San Diego. They were scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.
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 U.S. history. Those secret passages were lined with rail tracks, lighting and ventilation.
As U.S. authorities tighten their noose on land, tunnels have emerged as a major tack to smuggle marijuana. Smugglers also use single-engine wooden boats to ferry bales of marijuana up the Pacific Coast and pilot low-flying aircraft that look like motorized hang gliders to make lightning-quick drops across the border.
More than 70 tunnels have been found on the border since October 2008, surpassing the number of discoveries in the previous six years. Many are clustered around San Diego, California's Imperial Valley and Nogales, Ariz.
California is popular because its clay-like soil is easy to dig with shovels. In Nogales, smugglers tap into vast underground drainage canals. Authorities said they found a drug tunnel Tuesday in Nogales, running from a drain in Mexico to a rented house on the U.S. side.
San Diego's Otay Mesa area has the added draw that there are plenty of warehouses on both sides of the border to conceal trucks getting loaded with drugs. Its streets hum with semitrailers by day and fall silent on nights and weekends.
After last November's twin finds, U.S. authorities launched a campaign to alert Otay Mesa warehouse landlords to warning signs. Landlords were told to look for construction equipment, piles of dirt, sounds of jackhammers and the scent of unburned marijuana.
U.S. authorities linked the November finds to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, headed by that country's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The cartel has expanded its sphere of influence to Tijuana in recent years.
U.S. authorities said the sophistication of the latest tunnel suggests that a major Mexican drug cartel was involved, but no link has been established.[/quote]
[url=http://www.officer.com/news/10451877/major-drug-tunnel-uncovered-in-san-diego]Source[/url]
And this is why you can't just "stop" drugs from entering our country.
Why, why can't they just give up. People are always going to find ways to make profit from drugs when it's illegal. And doing so is only losing the money earned in an economy to go hidden away from the economy.
[QUOTE=Shiftyze;33324195]Why, why can't they just give up. People are always going to find ways to make profit from drugs when it's illegal. And doing so is only losing the money earned in an economy to go hidden away from the economy.[/QUOTE]
Because then they lose their jobs.
[QUOTE=Contag;33324198]Because then they lose their jobs.[/QUOTE]
But then we have a bundle of tax money to make new jobs and useful projects out of it.
Why the Captain America?
Shit, rate bad reading, says in the article.
Anyone else finding the picture of Captain America ironic?
[editline]18th November 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Jad Hinto;33324210]Why the Captain America?[/QUOTE]
I assume they use pictures to quickly identify whats being transported
[b]Edit:[/b]
The article says its so the owner can be identified
[QUOTE=Jad Hinto;33324210]Why the Captain America?[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Whitebowl;33324213]Anyone else finding the picture of Captain America ironic?[/QUOTE]
Drug dealers (and suppliers) are really organized. The image just shows the shipment.
neat
17 tons
fuck
"Cesar Beltran and Ruben Gomez each face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana"
why is it that getting drunk and killing a family of four in a car crash would likely get you a lesser sentence than [i]having plans to possibly sell weed to somebody at some point[/i]
[QUOTE=BldrGyMnGy;33324728]17 tons
fuck[/QUOTE]fuck a bowl,
wanna smoke a ton?
oh no NOT MARIJUANA
"I [i]am[/i] Captain America or at least that's what my drug-dealer calls me"
The cops are doing a good job [i]weeding out[/i] those criminals
wow. almost a life sentence if they are convicted, what crap.
[QUOTE=krazipanda;33324813]wow. almost a life sentence if they are convicted, what crap.[/QUOTE]
think of all the marijuana addicts who will live to see tomorrow now that the dea has saved the day
So much pot...
Good, I don't want their shitty pot anyway. The homegrown stuff is always better.
That "double layered" wall Bachmann wants to build if she becomes president is gonna sure do an effective job at stopping these!
[QUOTE=OvB;33324878]That "double layered" wall Bachmann wants to build if she becomes president is gonna sure do an effective job at stopping these![/QUOTE]
Next it'll be a double layered underground electric wall
Or a double layered ground
:downs:
That's not all:
[IMG]http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/5258/tunel06otay.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/87/tunel04otay.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2781/tunel01otay.jpg[/IMG]
Mexican side
the guys in the last picture look badass as fuck ^
Alright I'm betting in a few days after this little event, there will be a race of heads rolling down some really long road in Mexico.
Give it all to me I'll find a better place for it.
[QUOTE=Alex_DeLarge;33326249][img]http://poptimal.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/weeds-cutout.png[/img]
Anyone?[/QUOTE]
Don't worry, I'm sure Shawn made another one.
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