A house located in Tijuana, Mexico had been hiding some deep secrets for years. Though it looked completely ordinary and insignificant, a part of it was hidden from everyone. There was a closet in one of the bedrooms that had a passageway leading to an unknown place. As they say, you can't hide a secret for long. Authorities soon got a hint of it and they decided to investigate. They got their jaw dropped when they opened the closet. This CLOSET had an unexpected destination that put the entire US government in disbelief.
The house was situated in Tijuana, Mexico. But the house was far from being normal. The house had a living room, bedrooms, washrooms, and a kitchen. Not to forget a wardrobe that led to an unknown place.
We all have watched Chronicles of Narnia and loved it too. The story revolves around siblings who get teleported to a fantasy world through a wardrobe. This story is merely a part of fantasy but what if you find something like this in reality? An ordinary looking wardrobe was going to deprive authorities of their sleep and peace.
Nobody could get wind of what was hiding inside the wardrobe for years. But as they say, every mystery has its own time to come to the light. This one too was waiting for its moment. And after many years, finally, the moment arrived.
It was a sunny and quiet morning. The house in question was surrounded by authorities. The low key town had never seen so many officers at one time. Clearly, something was seriously wrong.
Tijuana is an important city of Northwestern Mexico, in Baja California, Mexico. The city boasts a population of 1.3 million people. It is a very popular tourist destination. It is the largest metropolitan city of Northwestern Mexico.
So, what was there inside the cupboard. And why a group of officers was surrounding the place? Answers to all these questions were way more surprising than you can imagine. The wardrobe was built in one of the bedrooms.
Officers entered the room and unbolted the closet in question. There were no clothes inside the closet. In fact, there was nothing in it. It was all empty. What more, it was not a cupboard at all.........
We all have heard about the secret passageways located beneath backyard or storerooms of a house. But how many times have you heard passageways lurking inside cupboards? Authorities had actually found one.
Though it did not surprise officers as they were already expecting something like this. They had been informed that something illegal was going on inside the house. But when they entered the premises there was no one around. What was that illegal activity and who was behind it?
Ostensibly it was a wardrobe but when authorities opened its doors it turned out to be an elevator. An elevator inside a wardrobe? Authorities wondered where was it leading to. There were some switches installed as well.
The elevator was spacious enough to accommodate 8 to 10 people in one time. Officers got into the elevator and pressed those buttons not knowing where was it going to take them. They were about to see an amazing sight.
They had a small entrance out there. And the entrance soon turned into a tunnel that was of manageable size. The place was five feet tall and three feet wide. It had enough space for a man to walk through it. Even the fact that the entrance was quite small in size and included a dangerous climb did not stop some people from entering it.
Soldiers who got inside the passageway, that was on the west of A.L. Rodriguez International Airport had to go 10 feet ladder down to reach the muddy path of the tunnel.
The tunnel was 3 feet wide and stretched over 500 feet. It was equipped with all the necessary thing. The authorities were in disbelief. They had discovered many tunnels before but this one was different. There was way more they were going to find.
The tunnel leads to an exit so small that even garbage can would be enough to cover it entirely. It opened up in the back of a pallet warehouse which did not look odd at all. In fact, the officials were very much expecting it. Smugglers often purchase legal businesses in order to keep their real money-generating business under cover. As of now, officials had gotten their hands on the tunnel and now they needed to get to the man who was using this tunnel.
The authorities did not want to jump the gun and so waited before taking any action. After a while, they saw a truck that was making its way out of the pallet factory. The vehicle was bound to some place in central San Diego. They noticed that the truck was carrying some boxes. They jumped into action the moment they found apt. Their instincts were absolutely right. The box had stored drugs.
The truck was carrying a significant amount of illegal narcotics. To sum it up, there was a ton of cocaine along with over seven tons of marijuana. Even though the amount captured was quite huge, it was still not the biggest tally of illegal drugs ever to be seized by authorities. Nevertheless, it was a huge amount. As the amount was in the custody of officers, it was the apt time to catch the people behind it and interrogate them.
Authorities went on nabbing six suspects. People who got arrested by the officers included two Cubans, one American, and three Mexicans. Usually, in cases of this sort, culprits have ties with people or parties living on the other sides of the frontier.
Laura Duffy, U.S. Attorney said, "On the surface few would ever suspect that traffickers were moving drugs worth tens of millions of dollars in such an unassuming way. It's a rabbit hole. Just the whole way it comes up out right into the open. It is a bit ingenious."
"If you continue to build and attempt to use these tunnels, we are determined to make this a big waste of your dirty money." "Not only will we take your drugs and shut down your tunnels before you even get an opportunity to use them, but we're now in a position where we're going after your management," she added.
Duffy further explained, "It was just two years ago, November 2011, that we discovered and shut down two elaborate super tunnels like the one here today." "And at the time we did so, we stood before you and we warned the cartels directly. If you build them, we're going find them, and if we find them, we're going to destroy them. Today, we again make good on that promise," she concluded.
Laura Duffy further clarified, "Marijuana is something we regularly find in these tunnels, but not cocaine ... we believe this to be the greatest seizure of cocaine carried out in a tunnel on the border,”
The border patrol finally put the pictures of the tunnel in the public domain with details related to its construction. Initially, it was really tough for officers to believe how spacious and well facilitated the tunnel was. That was not the end........
It was equipped with ventilation, electricity, and also with water pumps if flood ever strikes. The best part is that they did not take the help of any machines. In fact, they dug it all on their own. No doubt, it was very well constructed.
This tunnel was of great use for the smugglers as about illegal drugs worth tens of millions of dollars had been transported through this very route. No matter which government came in power, the smuggling of drugs did not stop, thanks to the tunnels of these kinds. The exit at the San Diego warehouse and the entry point inside a wardrobe in Tijuana made it impossible for anyone to track them.
Though there is no clarity over when this tunnel was built, Margarita Ontiveros working at a legal firm located around the tunnel exit has something to share. She said, the work of wooden pallet begun a year ago. She recalled, "They loaded and unloaded a lot of pallets."
How did the authority find out about the tunnel? Duffy explains, "The investigation began with an astute border patrol agent who identified this business as suspicious," She added, "They began monitoring this location and saw the people here conducting dry runs."
What made investigators grow more suspicious was the heavy traffic concentrated in that particular area. Duffy is "fairly confident" that there would have been many drug-load in this month. She also did not deny the possibility that some of them would have gone unchecked.
It may come as a surprise to you but tunnels of this kind is a common sight on the border. Authorities have managed to find 13 tunnels since 2006. Even though the police was keeping an eye on San Diego warehouse for a whole year, they still were not sure as to for how long was the tunnel in operations. Authorities though suspected that one of the tunnels were taken in use by defamed drug dealer El Chapo.
For Joaquín Guzman Loera, the Mexican drug trafficker better known as El Chapo used to build tunnels in order to operate. Authorities even made some of his tunnels' pictures public that allowed ordinary citizens a sneak peek at his amazingly constructed underground passages. Once the man even managed to escape a prison cell with the help of the tunnel he had built.
Now you must be wondering how did he manage to escape prison? Well, El Chapo was a smart fellow. He got out of the cell through a small hole covered under his shower cell. The man soon landed into a tunnel that ran to a motorcycle. Interestingly, that bike was capable of running on a track. The bike took him to the warehouse at a distance of a mile. However, the authorities managed to nab him again but before that El Chapo had gone a little further with his business.
Though the idea of building tunnels for safe transportation of drugs was of Chapo, the model is followed by many smugglers these days. Authorities came across another tunnel in 2003 with the length of six football fields that accommodated lighting, ventilation, and many other automated track instruments for convenient transportation.
The general office stated, “Presumably, one of these tunnels was being used by a criminal organization operating in the state of Sinaloa for smuggling drugs into the United States.” This was one of many organizations that were in function.
These sophisticated tunnels are equally expensive to construct. The cost can range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. But at the same time, the cost gets covered in one shipment only of drugs that accrues the smuggler way more than they spend on the building of the tunnel. Furthermore, the tunnels also are used for illegal immigration.
In 2016, authorities discovered 380-mile-long passageway that began from Mexico and exited in a California based restaurant. To put it more clearly, the size of the tunnel was large enough to fit people fleeing Mexico through it, theoretically. So, this is quite possible that the immigrants using the passageway could be delivering drugs for the smugglers in the trade of using the path.
In total, authorities have found about 115 tunnels linking Mexico and the United States. Notably, before the defamed 9/11 attack only 11 tunnels had been discovered by the officials. With the upgrade in technologies and hence security measures, drug traffickers had to dig more alike tunnels to continue in this business.
Tunnels are primarily built to smuggle marijuana from one city, state or country to another. Its odor and bulk are difficult to conceal from the border inspectors which makes it difficult to smuggle it through known ways. The best way to get them smuggled is through tunnels.
For building tunnels, the region between San Diego and Tijuana is the most popular. It is because of their easy-to-dig soil. The soil is more clay-like that does not pose any difficulty for shovels and pneumatic tools.
Moreover, the border has warehouses on both sides. It plays an important part as they work as a cover for heavy tools and trucks. It is because of them only these illegal activities get neglected by the authorities.
Things have become tougher for drug traffickers since the new U.S. sanctions have come into force. The sanction makes it even more difficult to run drugs and goods through tunnels. Authorities have captured many tunnels that were in making. Interestingly, on every completed tunnel, authorities found a couple more unfinished ones hinted by the former.
If you are thinking that tunnels are the only way of smuggling drugs and people into the country then you are wrong. There are many other ways. The reports regarding capturing of people crouched in cars, backs of trucks, and disguised amongst livestock have emerged every now and then.
A drone was found crashed at Tijuana's shopping center. Surprisingly, the drone was holding 3kg of an unidentified drug. The incident took place in January. Smugglers have come up with many new ways.
Does this story ring a bell? In case you missed, president Donald Trump is constantly rooting for a wall standing between Mexico and the United States. According to him, the cases of illegal immigration would cut down an insignificant amount after the construction of the wall. As far as the budget is concerned then it is estimated that the construction of the wall would cost about $20 billion.
How could we put an end to these illegal practices? No effective solution has been found to date. The problem requires sincere assistance of the government.
Despite the government's crackdown on illegal immigration of people and transportation of drugs, there has not been much success till now. There are people who believe building a wall would prevent such practices from happening. What do you think?
There have been many more cases of drug transportation through illegal means in San Diego. Joe Hernandez, Customs and Border Protection Agent explained, “This area used to be so dangerous that we couldn’t do what we are doing right now.” “We couldn’t just drive into this area, we would’ve been assaulted within seconds of being here.”
Unfortunately, it seems to be an unstoppable thing. David Shaw, Unzueta’s successor at Homeland Security Investigations believes now Cartels “operate like a business,” and continues, “If you put up one wall, they find a way to get around it.” So will the wall help?
Robert Hood, Acting Port Director said, “We probably lead the nation as far as smuggling attempts from aliens and narcotics, so we are very dynamic and very busy.” “It’s a fun place to be if you’re an officer. Something is always going on.”
Despite officials full attention, drug smugglers manage to slip by. Hood explains, “When I worked the primary lanes, my goal was to look at the folks as they are coming at me and to determine which one of all this traffic is not like everybody else.” “It’s kind of like when the Secret Service identified counterfeit currency. They know what legitimate currency is like so well that when the bad one comes, you go, ‘That’s it.’ ”
Unzueta also talks about the tunnels in trend. “With the advent of the infrastructure between the ports of entry, one of the unintended consequences were the huge narcotics tunnels that were created that went over 100 feet deep and ran seven or eight football fields in length.”