Two Tons of Marijuana Found in Tunnel

[Walter Cronkite]

Authorities this month discovered four secret tunnels that run under the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

Drug smugglers have dug one of the longest, most sophisticated tunnels discovered in recent years along the Mexican border, and the American and Mexican authorities have hauled nearly two tons of marijuana out of it since they entered it on Wednesday, officials said.

The tunnel is 60 feet below ground at some points, five feet high, and nearly half a mile long, extending from a warehouse near the international airport in Tijuana, Mexico, to a vacant industrial building in Otay Mesa, Calif., about 20 miles southeast of downtown San Diego. The sophistication of the tunnel surprised officials, who found it outfitted with a concrete floor, electricity, lights and ventilation and groundwater pumping systems.

The authorities said a tip led to the discovery.

Based on a tip, Mexican police on Tuesday found a sophisticated tunnel that had a pulley system, cement floor, hard soil walls and mounted lights.

"The tunnel is absolutely amazing," said Michael Unzueta, special agent in charge for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's San Diego office. "It is probably the biggest tunnel on the southern border so far."

On the American side, agents found about 200 pounds of marijuana in the building in Otay Mesa, which had several bays for tractor-trailers. On the Mexican side, drug agents found a pulley system at the entrance to the shaft and several thousand pounds of marijuana and hauled it out for several hours Wednesday. Mexican authorities also found seven cellphones, two trucks, a van and various documents in the warehouse, according to a statement from the Mexican attorney general's office.

The customs enforcement agency, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Border Patrol are sending a forensics team from Los Angeles to determine how long the tunnel has been in use.

The tunnel is one of the latest to be found along the border. Most are attributed to Mexican drug cartels searching for ways to move contraband into the United States, but some appear to be the work of smugglers of illegal immigrants.

The tunnel is 60 feet deep, five feet high, and nearly half a mile long, running from a vacant building in the U.S. to a warehouse near Tijuana's airport.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, when border security was tightened, agents have uncovered 21 tunnels of varying degrees of length and sophistication, from "gopher holes" to engineered marvels like Wednesday's discovery, Mr. Unzueta said.

The builders, he said, "had to have access to money and somebody with a strong construction and engineering background."

"Our quick assumption is it's the drug cartels," he said.

The tunnel, Mr. Unzueta added after touring it, " is almost like a mineshaft."

Wednesday's discovery was the result of a tip investigated by a task force of federal agents devoted to tunnels. On Monday, they narrowed their search to the area in Otay Mesa and notified Mexican agents about what they suspected was the opening of the tunnel near the airport.

Authorities have hauled nearly two tons of marijuana from the tunnel since Wednesday.

Both sides began digging. Mexican agents discovered a concrete-lined, 85-foot-deep shaft in a warehouse, descended, walked through the tunnel and popped up on the American side, Mr. Unzueta said. Officials on each side are searching records to determine who owns the buildings.

Also on Wednesday, several miles west of the big tunnel, the authorities found a smaller one — about two feet underground and extending 30 feet across the border near a storm drain — after a United States Border Patrol vehicle hit a sinkhole.

Source: AP

[Sodomy]

After the gangsters made a fortune with alcohol during prohibition, including old Joe Kennedy and a lot of others, making marijuana illegal opened up a whole new product for profit for criminals along with other illegal drugs.

It always amazed me that no matter how much the government talks about fighting drugs, the cops make a big bust, it's still always available.

It's a big business and tax free, and believe me, there are a lot of so-called law enforcement people on the payoff lists.

In my old city, the dealers were right out in the open every day and the cops somehow never seemed to notice them. Now I'm not a trained professional law enforcer myself, but maybe there's a secret law enforcement reason certain drug dealers can operate openly every single day and the cops could never see them. Was it those special cop sun glasses they wore?

[Summer Rain]

Send me a pound

Send me a pound. I promise to burn it for you!

[The Real]

The truth about marijuana

Authorities in the US need to stop wasting our tax dollars fighting marijuana use. Your goverment lied to get it illegal in 1937. They couldnt get it illegal by telling the truth about it. Study the history of this prohibition.

Smoking marijuana is not deadly and no one can overdose on it. Compare that to alcohol abuse and figure. Understand this, Alcohol can be deadly if heavily abused in a short time period. A quick death from smoking marijuana is not possible. Disagree? Then prove me wrong. The actual truth about marijuana is getting around. Smoking marijuana not as bad and dangerous as your lying goverment tells you. Furthermore the marijuana plant is not going to stop growing on planet earth. The goverment isnt big enough to eradicate this plant from our world. Prohibition of it just keeps the goverment idiots busy fighting a war they will never ever win.

Legalize, tax and regulate marijuana as done with alcohol. Then educate todays children so they will be more likely to want to avoid smoking it when they become adults. They will have grown up being highly discouraged from ever taking the first puff from a marijuana cigarette. If you think the smoking of marijuana leads to worse drugs, you've been misinformed by more propaganda and theory.

A substance in marijuana called THC can be classified as a drug and it may be a usefull drug too. Look at the history of marijuana and you may learn something your goverment wont tell you.

Canabis, hemp , marijuana or whatever you want to call it, its a weed and it will always be growing somewhere no matter what is done to stop it.

[AndySMC]

Stop comparing alcohol and marijuana. They are nothing alike. One is a beverage, the other is a herb.

Sure nobody has ever overdosed on marijuana, but then again nobody has ever overdosed on cigarettes either. And cigarettes are directly related to the most common forms of disease and death in the USA. Seeing as marijuana is about the same as 10 cigarettes, smoke up you idiots, there will be fewer and fewer of you to tell us about the harmless effects of smoke inhalation.