Cross-border tunnel found near Jacumba
An incomplete cross-border tunnel near Jacumba, Calif. was found by Mexican authorities last month while they conducted an operation at a home in Mexico.
Customs and Border Protection said on September 19, Mexican state police and military forces were conducting an operation at a home in Jacume, Baja California when they discovered an incomplete cross-border subterranean tunnel. The home is located about 221 feet south of the United States/Mexico border.
The Attorney General of Mexico conducted a search warrant the next day. They also authorized the Border Patrol’s Western Corridor Tunnel Interdiction Group (WCTIG) to enter the entrance, located in Jacume, to map and determine if the tunnel had an exit point in the United States.
Homeland Security Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Border Patrol determined the tunnel entry point had a shaft that was about 31 feet deep and of 627 feet in length, of which 336 feet were inside the U.S.
CBP said in the U.S., the tunnel’s average size was three feet in height and roughly two and a half feet in width. Agents reached an exit shaft that went about 15 feet up toward the surface but did not break the surface and did not have an exit point into the U.S.
Agents stated that there was a solar panel system used to run the electrical, lighting, and ventilation systems inside the tunnel. Two sump-pump systems were also discovered within the tunnel to pump out any water gathered in the tunnel. Authorities added that a rail system was installed that ran the entire length of the tunnel.
