Border Patrol agents locate cross-border tunnels under Nogales streets
Dec 9, 2019, 10:15 AM | Updated: 8:47 pm
PHOENIX — U.S. Border Patrol agents found two cross-border tunnel running under the Nogales streets in the past week.
According to Border Patrol, the first tunnel was located by agents and Mexican Federal Police during a routine, binational tunnel sweep of the stormwater drainage system that serves both sides of the border.
#TucsonSector Border Patrol agents with the cooperation of Mexican Federal Police located an illicit cross-border tunnel on the west side of Nogales on Wednesday. This is the 124th tunnel discovered by Border Patrol since 1990. @PoliciaFedMx details: https://t.co/tq8GVRatft pic.twitter.com/2dvFHIOX2n
— CBP Arizona (@CBPArizona) December 5, 2019
The second tunnel was found Sunday by Tucson Border Patrol agents, according to a press release.
The first tunnel was located 10 feet underground and extended 20 feet into the U.S. Its entrance, which was three feet wide and over four feet tall, was concealed in the floor of a drainage system with dirt and capped off with a Styrofoam and concrete mixture.
Border Patrol and Mexican authorities will continually check on the incomplete tunnel until it is properly secured and filled with concrete.
The find was part of four-day operation to target narcotics and human smugglers near Nogales, in the Mexican state of Sonora. Nogales is about 70 miles south of Tucson.
The second tunnel was discovered west of the Deconcini Port of Entry and about 50 yards east of the other tunnel.
It had a depth of about 10 feet and came up approximately five feet north of the border fence.
They were the 124th and 125th tunnels discovered in the Tucson Sector since 1990.
