U.S. and Mexican authorities on Thursday confirmed the discovery of a clandestine cross-border tunnel between Tijuana and San Diego.

The tunnel’s entrance was found near Tijuana’s A.L. Rodríguez International Airport. A source with Baja California’s Public Safety Secretariat said authorities believe that five tons of marijuana are inside the structure.

The source said that the tunnel had been in operation, and that an anonymous tip had led Mexican soldiers and members of the state police to its discovery.

Few details as to passageway’s length and sophistication were immediately available. By Thursday evening, Mexican authorities had yet to conduct a formal search of the property, as they still awaited a judge’s order to go inside, according to a statement. The interior contained what appeared to be marijuana wrapped in plastic rectangular packages, it said.


The entrance to the tunnel was inside an ice-making business southwest of the airport, La Hielera del Aeropuerto. It is located about 330 yards from the U.S. border fence on Boulevard Cuauhtemoc.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations released a statement Thursday confirming the discovery of a tunnel in the San Diego/Tijuana area, but did not disclose its location.

“In order to ensure the integrity of the ongoing investigation, HSI San Diego is not providing additional details at this time,” the statement said.

The location of the tunnel came six months after the discovery of one of the longest cross-border tunnels on the California border. The tunnel, about 800 yards long, stretched from a house in Tijuana to a fenced commercial lot in Otay Mesa, and was equipped with rail and ventilation systems, lights, and an elevator.


That tunnel was the 13th large-scale operational smuggling tunnel found along the California border since 2006, according to U.S.Customs and Immigration Enforcement.

Over the past five years, U.S. authorities have detected more than 75 cross-border smuggling tunnels, most of them in California and Arizona.

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com