I've never seen one in the flesh.
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| Two Drug Tunnels, With Rail Systems, Found At U.S.-Mexico Border |
| 2014-04-05 |
| [Yahoo.com] U.S. federal agents have uncovered two drug-smuggling tunnels underneath the U.S.-Mexico border, both surfacing in San Diego-area warehouses and equipped with rail systems for moving contraband, officials said on Friday. The discovery led to the arrest of a 73-year-old woman accused of running one of the warehouses connected to a drug smuggling operation, according to a joint news release by four federal agencies. The tunnels were discovered as part of a five-month investigation by the so-called San Diego Tunnel Task Force. Federal law enforcement officials said the first tunnel, which connects a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico, with one in an industrial park in the border community of Otay Mesa, is about 600 yards long and is furnished with lighting, a crude rail system and wooden trusses. The passageway is accessed via a 70-foot shaft secured by a cement cover and includes a pulley system on the U.S. side apparently intended to hoist contraband up into the warehouse. The second tunnel was even more sophisticated, built with a multi-tiered electric rail system and an array of ventilation equipment. "Here we are again, foiling cartel plans to sneak millions of dollars of illegal drugs through secret passageways that cost millions of dollars to build," U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said in a statement. The two tunnels are the sixth and seventh cross-border passageways discovered in the San Diego area in less than four years, according to the task force. Since 2006, federal authorities have detected at least 80 cross-border smuggling tunnels, most of them in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, and Arizona, and seized some 100 tons of narcotics associated with them. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #14 AP: thanks, I knew some of that and have watched the few Youtubes out there. Being a Michigan boy, my steam was mainly Grand Trunk ( now Soo/CN) The Great Northern (now BNSF) had a similar smoke/fume problem with the Cascade tunnels, but they ran the smokestack along the top of the boiler and ended aft of the cab. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2014-04-05 23:08 |
| #13 USN. The cab forwards were one heck of an engine. In the tunnels and snowsheds of the Southern Pacific Roseville Division over Donner Summit, they provided excellent visibility and prevented asphyxiation of train crews. The deck in back of the engine by the exhaust stack and ahead of the tender was called the monkey deck. Train bums liked it there because it was warm. Unfortunately a number of them died when the exhaust steam and smoke beat down on them in the tunnels and snowsheds. I saw the last of them as a kid out of Martinez and on the Donner route. They had a presence and a very haunting whistle. Never forgot it. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2014-04-05 22:54 |
| #12 They should just pump a bit of H2S into these tunnels and let the druggies enjoy the smell/keel over dead. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2014-04-05 21:06 |
| #11 thanks, I knew the pix was not of a full size and thanks for the Sacramento lead...... between that and the Big Boy I have a full plate of articulateds to visit..... |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2014-04-05 15:32 |
| #10 Eat your hearts out, Gazans! Hah! Pikers! Out here we have rails, hoists, AC, satellite TV, coffee maker, USA vs. MEX friendly on, run by an elderly lady. Gazooks seem to have a time just keeping their peppers out of the goats. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2014-04-05 12:25 |
| #9 USNR, yes at Sacremento: I've never seen one in the flesh. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2014-04-05 12:08 |
| #8 There are a few I believe USNR. But pictures is one of Pappys imports. :) H0 btw. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2014-04-05 12:05 |
| #7 not the first collision |
| Posted by: Frank G 2014-04-05 12:00 |
| #6 Ship: love them Cab forwards. do any survive? |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2014-04-05 11:12 |
| #5 Mebbe Masachusetts should've hired them for the Big Dig project. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2014-04-05 08:31 |
| #4 I doubt it costed millions of dollars to build |
| Posted by: Bernardz 2014-04-05 03:20 |
| #3 Eat your hearts out, Gazans! |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-04-05 03:10 |
#2 This situation is begging for Cab-forward: |
| Posted by: Shipman 2014-04-05 01:31 |
| #1 Besides he 73-year old tunnel madam, no thought given to a sting.... in which several of the dope runners might have been captured and interrogated ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-04-05 01:08 |