United States Border Patrol agents seized seven tons of marijuana and a ton of cocaine this week after it had been smuggled through a tunnel underneath the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities said Wednesday.
The tunnel – the longest ever discovered between California and Mexico – stretched nearly 800 meters from a house in Tijuana, Mexico, to an industrial facility in San Diego. The entrance in Tijuana lay at the bottom of an elevator shaft built into the house, while the northern end of the tunnel emerged within a fenced-in lot set up to look like a pallet business.
U.S. authorities moved on the facility on Monday and Tuesday, arresting six people on charges related to trafficking drugs and building the tunnel. Laura Duffy, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California said the cocaine seizure was the largest ever associated with a tunnel.
WATCH: GoPro video tour of tunnel
The smugglers used a large trash dumpster to conceal the entrance to the tunnel. They loaded the drugs into the dumpster and then used it to move the drugs off the lot, to another location where they unloaded it.
The tunnel discovered this week was the 13th unearthed by U.S. authorities along the California-Mexico border since 2006.
