BORDER TUNNEL FUNNELED DRUGS, AUTHORITIES SAY

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Federal authorities found an 85-foot tunnel under the
U.S.-Mexican border Tuesday and said they believed it had been used to
smuggle $21 million worth of cocaine and marijuana into the United States.

Authorities said they had seized all the drugs -- 956 pounds of cocaine and
839 pounds of marijuana -- since smugglers began using the tunnel in late
summer, Customs Agent Vince Iglio said. Two people were arrested last month.

The tunnel stretched from underneath a home in Nogales, 55 miles south of
Tucson, to a concrete wash on the Mexican side of the border. Iglio said
the opening on the Mexican side was covered by a steel utility plate and
resealed with concrete each time it was used.

The 4-foot-high tunnel, shored up throughout with lumber like a mine, was
"one of the most complicated we've seen," Iglio said. It was strung with
electricity and tracks had been laid inside.

In a bedroom of the Nogales home, authorities found a mechanic's dolly with
a long rope attached. In a corner of the room, under carpeting and wooden
flooring, was a 30-foot vertical shaft leading to the tunnel.

The occupant of the home has not been found, Iglio said. The home's owner
does not live there and isn't believed to be involved in the drug smuggling.

The city of Nogales plans to excavate and seal the tunnel, he said.

Iglio compared the new tunnel to a concrete-lined, electrified 300-foot
tunnel found in 1990. That tunnel ran about 30 feet under the border
between a home in Agua Prieta, Mexico, and a warehouse in Douglas, with
secret entrances on both sides and a hydraulic lift.

The tunnel was the eighth discovered in Nogales since 1995 but the first in
the city to run directly beneath the border. The others have led into sewer
lines that feed into a canal system that flows from Mexico into Nogales.