Authorities find 3rd drug tunnel in Nogales this month

PHOENIX — Authorities on Tuesday found a third drug tunnel this month in Nogales under the United States-Mexico border.

The 8-foot deep, 82-foot long tunnel began at a house on the U.S. side of the border and was connected to a water drainage pipe that runs under the border.

Homeland Security agents recovered about 200 pounds of meth, 2 pounds of white heroin, 3 pounds of cocaine and 6 pounds of fentanyl from the house.

Two Mexican nationals were also arrested and charged with possession and conspiracy to distribute hard narcotics, according to a press release.

Authorities believe the tunnel had been in existence for at least a few months because of its sophisticated nature.

“It comes at no surprise that HSI special agents on the BEST and those on the Joint Port Enforcement Group (JPEG) dismantled an operational drug tunnel along the border,” Scott Brown, special agent in charge for HSI Phoenix, said in the release. “As this investigation makes clear, we remain focused on exposing border crime and combating the cartels’ increasingly unabashed underground smuggling tactics.”

Earlier this month, agents and Mexican Federal Police in Nogales located a tunnel during a routine, bi-national sweep of the stormwater drainage system that serves both sides of the border.

A few days later, a second tunnel was found west of the Deconcini Port of Entry, about 50 yards east of the other tunnel.

There have been 126 tunnels discovered in the Tucson Sector since 1990.

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