TIJUANA – Two Mexican customs inspectors were among five people detained yesterday morning at the starting point of an unfinished cross-border tunnel, the region's top Customs official said. “The inspectors are responsible for guarding this area,” said the official, José Márquez Padilla. “They are now under investigation because they could have been helping.”
Sgt Schultz: "I see noooooothing!"
The tunnel's opening was in a dirt section of a junkyard that is owned by Mexican Customs, near the San Ysidro port of entry, but authorities said it did not enter into the United States. Four other cross-border tunnels or openings have been found in this area during the past year.
The frequent finds have raised questions about how drug or people smugglers could be digging and using tunnels in an area that is owned by the Mexican government.
Márquez said the investigation would determine whether the tunnels were dug by the same group.
"they have tell-tale shovel marks"
Some of the other tunnels were dirt holes, while others had plastic cylinders for reinforcement. Tunnel diggers also appear to be using pieces of a concrete culvert on the U.S side to shore up their tunnels.
The tunnel found yesterday stretched about 55 feet, Márquez said. The opening is near a large pile of junk. It had been reinforced with wooden planks, and sandbags and a shovel lay nearby.
The identities of the five suspects hadn't been released by federal authorities yesterday afternoon. A spokesman with the Mexican Attorney General's Office in Tijuana, which is now handling the case, said they wouldn't be named unless charges are filed.
The discovery came after the Federal Preventive Police determined that something suspicious was going on in the area several days ago, Márquez said.
“They contacted me to see if we could help with them in preparing their logistics . . . and we participated in this so that they could enter by surprise in the morning,” he said.
Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the tunnel find was the result of a joint investigation by Mexican and U.S. authorities.
Márquez said his agency would assist in prosecuting any agents involved in tunnel-digging, and it would work with U.S. authorities to prevent more tunnels from being dug there.
He said the Customs area remains vacant while plans are developed to construct a larger border crossing though the junkyard. Until those plans are finalized, Márquez said, it would be impractical and costly to pave it over with concrete.
how about monitoring it for fresh piles of dirt. You can do that, can't you?