Feds Find Hidden Border Tunnel

July 29,2007 — -- A small house on the Arizona border was hiding a big secret: the entry to a tunnel to Mexico.

The nearly 100-yard-long tunnel was discovered by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they searched the home late Thursday afternoon. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol assisted in the investigation, which began in April when agents put the residence under observation.

The search team found the tunnel's 3-foot by 3-foot entrance hidden underneath sheets of plywood in a utility room. They don't believe the passageway, which was rigged with a lighting system, had become a smuggling route yet.

"Quick action by law enforcement ensured that this tunnel wouldn't be used," said Alonzo Peña, special agent in charge of ICE's Arizona investigations branch.

The Nogales, Ariz., house was largely empty when agents entered -- except for tools that appear to have been used in the excavation. Picks, a jack hammer and various other items were strewn across the floor, the DEA noted.

In a parallel investigation, Mexico's Sonoran State Police searched a home across the border in the Mexican town also called Nogales; the home obscured the tunnel's other portal. Mexican law enforcement arrested five suspects at that house.

ICE agents have put a temporary seal on the tunnel's U.S. entrance; the agency said it will fill in the space permanently once the investigation wraps up.

The Nogales tunnel is "one of the most extensive smuggling tunnels uncovered along the southwestern border since the discovery of a massive tunnel south of San Diego in January 2006," according to the DEA.

The San Diego passageway stretched from Tijuana, Mexico, to a point approximately a half-mile north of the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican authorities reported finding more than two tons of marijuana bales lining the tunnel.

The DEA said since Sept. 11, the U.S. government has uncovered more than 40 tunnels along California and Arizona's border with Mexico.