U.S. AGENTS FIND TUNNEL AT BORDER FOR SMUGGLING

TUCSON, Feb. 27 -- Federal agents have discovered a 25-foot dirt
tunnel that was being used to smuggle drugs across the Mexican
border, and seized 840 pounds of cocaine from the Arizona house at
one end of the passage.

The crude, hand-dug tunnel, fitted with a string of bare electric
bulbs, runs from the house in Nogales, Ariz., to the sewer system,
which leads in turn to a dry stream bed called the Nogales Wash along
the Mexican border.

"The drugs probably were smuggled from Mexico through the wash, into
the sewer pipe, then into the tunnel and into the house," a Customs
spokesman, Roger Maier, said. "At this point, we have no idea how
long it was there, but it appears from the evidence that it had been
utilized for some time."

The tunnel, discovered on Monday, was connected to the sewer by a
hinged metal hatch.

The discovery came as agents were investigating possible smuggling
activity at the home. They found no one at home but noticed dirt
between a window blind and window, leading them to suspect digging.

The tunnel's soil appeared compacted, and Mr. Maier added that
investigators reasoned the tunnel had been used "very recently,
because in most cases they're not going to leave 840 pounds of
cocaine sitting there unattended very long."

Customs agents with a search warrant searched the home, discovering
198 cocaine bricks in the front room. The cocaine was estimated to be
worth $6.5 million wholesale, Mr. Maier said.

No arrests were made.

The tunnel was the sixth discovered in Nogales in recent years. The
first was found in 1995. Three more tunnels were discovered in 1999
and one last year, all coming off sewer pipes branching off the
Nogales Wash.