It isn’t the first tunnel found underneath the Mexican border and it won’t be the last. This one was a remarkable feat of engineering but it’s in the process of being sealed up tight with cement. Smugglers will need to find another way to get drugs and migrants through.
Tunnel closed for business
Authorities are still searching for whoever built this smuggling tunnel from Juarez to El Paso. One of the cartels had to be behind it. No matter which one was using it, they won’t be using it now.
On January 16, “a flatbed truck carrying large sacks of cement mix was parked along Gate 28 of the border wall as workers lowered buckets of cement.”
Officials had to compliment whoever dug the passage on the way it was concealed. “Border Patrol agents from the Confined Space Entry Team discovered the tunnel while inspecting the storm drain system along the border on January 9.”
Once Trump gets settled back into the Oval Office, teams will be out with sophisticated gear looking for more. That wasn’t a high priority for Alejandro Mayorkas.
The sophisticated tunnel is roughly 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It’s well equipped with “lighting, a ventilation system, and is braced with wood beams throughout.”
They tapped the drainage system under a pair of matching freeways to access the smuggling route.
Homeland Security investigating
The incoming Trump administration is taking the breach of national security seriously. On the Mexican side, the tunnel runs beneath “a highway that runs parallel to the border in Juarez.” From there, it “goes under the Rio Grande, the border wall, the American Canal, levees, and a six-lane highway that runs parallel to the border in El Paso.”
They don’t need to deal with Governor Abbott’s floating barricade, since they go completely under the river.
The U.S. end of the tunnel emerges next to a water treatment plant. While acknowledging the workmanship that went into it, officials aren’t going to stop with simply filling it up with cement.
“Special agents with HSI El Paso and HSI Ciudad Juarez continue working closely with our law enforcement partners on both sides of the border.”
As related by Jason T. Stevens, special agent in charge for HSI El Paso, the passage will be sealed “but our criminal investigation will continue.”
The feds won’t sleep until they “identify the individuals and transnational criminal network responsible for the construction and operation of the cross-border tunnel discovered last week.“
