SECOND MARIJUANA TUNNEL DISCOVERED

Two More Warehouses Found, 20 Tons of Pot Seized, Eight Arrested in
San Diego, Tijuana.

Federal authorities have unearthed another cross-border tunnel in a
San Diego warehouse district, the second major tunnel discovery and
multi-ton seizure of marijuana believed to be from Mexico's most
powerful drug cartel in a month.

The tunnel, which started in a residence in Tijuana, stretched nearly
half a mile and split into two passageways, with the branches
emerging at separate warehouses nearly 800 feet apart.

The tunnel was within a block of a subterranean passage found three
weeks ago, where authorities seized more than 25 tons of marijuana,
the second-largest marijuana seizure in U.S. history.

With Thursday's haul of 20 more tons, authorities said they had dealt
a significant double blow to Mexican organized crime groups. The
amount seized was the equivalent of about 17 million marijuana
joints, said Ralph Partridge, the special agent in charge of the Drug
Enforcement Administration office in San Diego.

"This has a huge impact," Partridge said.

Authorities believe the drugs found in the tunnels this month
belonged to separate cells of the Sinaloa drug cartel, which has long
used northern Baja California as staging ground for smuggling drugs
into California. The discovery on Thursday morning came after U.S.
agents stopped a tractor-trailer loaded with marijuana bales that had
just left a warehouse on Marconi Drive.

Inside the empty warehouse space where a "For Rent" sign hung out
front, agents found an opening cut into the concrete floor. They
traversed the tunnel to the second opening in a warehouse a few
blocks away on Via de la Amistad.

To find the opening on the Tijuana side, Mexican Army soldiers
traversed the entire 2,200-foot passage, which featured lighting and
ventilation systems. They surfaced in the kitchen of the residence
where a family lived. Authorities said six people were arrested in Mexico.

"They were very surprised," said Tim Durst, an assistant special
agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement who heads the
multi-agency San Diego Tunnel Task Force. The bust culminated an
eight-month investigation, built largely on tips from informants.

Authorities seized four tons of marijuana in the Tijuana residence
and another location in Mexico; three tons in the tunnel; and about
13 tons in the tractor trailer. Two men were arrested in California,
including the driver of the tractor-trailer.

The tunnel was one of the longest ever discovered and had several
unique features that highlighted traffickers' evolving approach to
ferrying drugs under the border. The floor of the passageway was
lined with tongue-and-groove wooden boards that served as a level
surface for the cart and rail system. There was an underground room,
roughly 10 by 20 feet, where smugglers off-loaded the marijuana bales
from the cart before hoisting them to the surface.

The most unusual feature was the construction of two tunnel branches,
which authorities speculate allowed smugglers alternate exit points
in case of surveillance.