TONS OF POT FOUND IN SOPHISTICATED CROSS-BORDER TUNNEL

SAN DIEGO - More than 2 tons of marijuana were found inside one of the
longest and most sophisticated cross-border tunnels ever discovered,
officials said Thursday.

The size and scale of the tunnel - the 21st discovered in more than
four years - stunned authorities, who said that the passageway
revealed the lengths smugglers will go to evade detection.

The tunnel began near the airport in Tijuana, Mexico, and ended 2,400
feet away in a San Diego warehouse, said Michael Unzueta, special
agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San
Diego. It was unclear how long the tunnel had been in operation,
Unzueta said.

At least 60 feet below U.S. soil, authorities found a tunnel floor
lined with cement, lights that ran down one of the hard soil walls,
and air piped down from the surface, he said. An adult could stand in
the 5-foot-high shaft.

"It was like being in a cavern or a cave," Unzueta said in an
interview. "It's just huge, absolutely incredible."

Mexican investigators found the tunnel entrance Tuesday inside a
warehouse near the airport, about 150 yards south of the border. A
6-by-10-foot cement shaft equipped with a pulley dropped about 75 feet
to the tunnel.

U.S. authorities located the exit to the tunnel Wednesday, launching a
criminal investigation by the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego,
said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.

Authorities on both sides of the border were attempting to determine
who owned the warehouses where the tunnel began and ended, Unzueta
said.

More than 2 tons of marijuana were found on the tunnel's Mexican side
and about 200 pounds of pot on the U.S. side, he said.

Mexican authorities allowed reporters and photographers in the tunnel
late Wednesday night. Near the entrance, authorities were seen
weighing bales of what appeared to be marijuana. Several hundred
packages wrapped with brown packing tape were stacked about 5 feet
high.

It's unclear if it was used to sneak people or drugs other than
marijuana into the United States, Unzueta said.

Four tunnels have been discovered this month in the Tijuana-San Diego
area.

Also Wednesday, U.S. and Mexican authorities found an unfinished
tunnel when a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle struck a sinkhole early
Wednesday near the San Ysidro border crossing, which links Tijuana and
San Diego. It was about 2 feet underground and extended about 30 feet
into the United States, near a storm drain.

"It was very, very small and extremely primitive," Mack said.

The unfinished tunnel began just south of the border in Tijuana in a
vacant lot, said Jose Marquez Padilla, a Mexican Customs director. It
was about 3 feet wide.