News
Release
FOR
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
June 29, 2007
Probe
by DEA
and
ICE
Leads
to Discovery
of
Cross-Border
Drug Tunnel in
Nogales
Passageway
Stretches
Almost
the Length
of a Football
Field
JUN
29 --
NOGALES,
Ariz. – Agents
from
the
Drug
Enforcement
Administration
(DEA)
and
the
U.S.
Immigration
and
Customs
Enforcement
(ICE)
executed
a search
warrant
here
late
yesterday
afternoon
at a
home
used
to conceal
the
U.S.
entrance
to a
recently
constructed
tunnel
that
stretched
nearly
100
yards
underground
to a
residence
across
the
border
in Mexico.
Inside the tiny one-story home at 24 North Escalada Drive agents discovered the tunnel’s entrance in a utility room hidden beneath sheets of plywood weighted down with dirt-filled bags. The shaft of the narrow passage, reinforced in places with wood supports and sandbags, measured three feet by three feet at the Nogales entrance. The tunnel, which investigators believe had yet to be used, was equipped with lighting, but had no ventilation system.
When agents entered the Nogales home, it was empty and largely unfurnished. Scattered on the floor were picks, a jack-hammer, and other equipment likely used in the excavation. As ICE and DEA agents searched the Nogales home, officers from the Sonoran State Police made entry into the residence across the border in Nogales, Sonora, where they located the tunnel’s other entrance. At that location, Mexican authorities arrested five suspects.
ICE
and DEA
are coordinating
the ongoing
investigation
into the
tunnel,
which
has been
under
observation
since
April.
The two
agencies
have received
substantial
assistance
in the
case from
U.S. Customs
and Border
Protection
Border
Patrol.
“Yesterday’s discovery is yet another reminder how desperate these criminal organizations are and the extent they will go to further their drug operations and endanger the security of our citizens,” said Douglas Hebert, acting special in charge of the DEA’s Phoenix Field Division. “The DEA continues to work with its counterparts nationally and internationally to target and dismantle drug trafficking organizations, as well as to block their smuggling routes into this country.”
“Quick action by law enforcement ensured that this tunnel wouldn’t be used,” said Alonzo Peña, special agent in charge of the ICE office of investigations in Arizona. “If passages like these go undetected, they pose a potential threat to our nation’s security. ICE is committed to working with its law enforcement partners to dismantle these tunnels and the criminal organizations behind them.”
ICE has temporarily blocked the U.S. entrance to the tunnel. It will be permanently filled in by U.S. Customs and Border Protection once the investigation is completed.
The Nogales passageway is one of the most extensive smuggling tunnels uncovered along the southwestern border since the discovery of a massive tunnel south of San Diego in January 2006. Since 9/11, federal authorities have discovered more than 40 cross-border tunnels along the U.S.-Mexico border in California and Arizona.