Two cross-border narco tunnels have been discovered near Calexico, south of San Diego, California, in three weeks, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Sunday, which could mean that powerful drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman continues to operate from inside his cell.
Three weeks ago on March 23, four people were arrested after Border Patrol agents discovered the first tunnel below a three-bedroom house in Calexico, California, authorities said.
The entrance to that tunnel was inside a restaurant in Mexicali, Mexico, about 100 miles southeast of Tijuana.
Various local news outlets confirmed that the tunnel belonged to El Chapo, as his Sinaloa Cartel has controlled the whole region for years.
The second tunnel was discovered near Calexico by an El Centro Sector Border Patrol agent. He first found the tunnel around 11:30 a.m. while conducting routine patrol duties along the border, the CBP statement said.
The agent noticed a depression in the ground along the banks of the All-American Canal prompting him to approach it and when he did, the soil gave way, exposing an 18-inch hole with lumber and electrical wiring inside, the CBP added.
“This is exactly what our Border Patrol agents are on patrol for,” El Centro Sector Chief Rodney Scott said. “They are on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary along our vast Southwest border. This agent saw something that didn’t look quite right and it turned out to be a tunnel.”
The discovery marks the third time a cross border tunnel was found in the Calexico area within a year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
El Chapo is said to be the "king of tunnels" as in the past five to 10 years, over 120 tunnel that have been discovered along the border with the United States have been directly linked to him. In June 2015, Guzman escaped through a high-tech, one-mile tunnel that, according to El Chapo, cost over US$8 million to build.