Mexican authorities found what they suspect is a tunnel used to smuggle drugs into the U.S. in Tijuana after receiving an anonymous tip. The country's National Guard arrived at a yard used by food trucks to find someone digging in the property.
Baja California's Secretary of Public Safety, Leopoldo Tizoc Aguilar Durán, said the tunnel is connected to another found two years ago in the same area and that goes all the way into the U.S.
"It's attached to a tunnel that had been taken out of commission in 2022. We have three tunnels in that same area that have been constructed in the past," Aguilar told Border Report. He added that they don't yet know the length of the tunnel due to a lack of oxygen.
Authorities are in the process of getting tanks to continue the investigation while their U.S. counterparts look for the exit point on the other side of the border. This is the first such find this year, but the area is under constant surveillance as five similar passages have been discovered over the past years.
Neither American nor Mexican officials have confirmed the tunnel was used to smuggle drugs. The discovery comes a few days after the U.S. Defense Department published figures showing that Mexico's seizure of fentanyl has dropped dramatically this year.
Concretely, Mexican federal forces have only seized 286 pounds (130 kilograms) of the opioid in the first six months of 2024, a 94% year-on-year decrease. The figure was 5,135 pounds (over 2,300 kilograms) in the first half of 2023.
Efforts by Mexican law enforcement seem to have shifted toward methamphetamines, much more consumed in the country than fentanyl. Meth seizures reached a record 400 tons last year, a 1,200% increase compared to 2022. And figures on the same track in 2024, as they currently stand at 168 tons.
Meth is also exported to the U.S., but unlike fentanyl it is also consumed domestically. The opioid has been linked for some 70,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. every year, 70% of all such deaths in the country according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and officials acknowledging it as a public health emergency.
For example, California Governor Gavin Newsom has more than doubled the number of National Guard troops along his state's southern border with Mexico in efforts to crack down on "deadly drugs."
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
