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U.S. SENATOR WANTS TO CRACK DOWN ON TUNNELS
Feinstein Said Tunnels Often Overlooked

By Amy Isackson | TijuanaPress.com
June 17, 2011 10: 50 a.m.

SAN DIEGO - United States Senator Diane Feinstein, of California, plans to introduce legislation next week to give U.S authorities new tools to root out cross-border smuggling tunnels and prosecute people who help build them.

The bill would make the intent to build a tunnel a crime; allow authorities to use wiretaps in tunnel cases; and let authorities seize a tunnel builder’s assets.

“Illegal tunneling is a growing problem that is far too often overlooked,” said Feinstein during a Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control hearing about tunnels earlier this week.

Authorities have unearthed 125 tunnels along the Southwest border since 2001, with the majority in Arizona and California. Most of those tunnels were crude passageways. But a handful were masterfully constructed with wood paneling, ventilation, lighting and even mini-railroads to ferry drugs underneath the border. One was almost a mile long.

“The cartels have become more and more desperate to secure distribution routes into the United States; if they cannot cross the border above ground, they will tunnel under it,” said Laura Duffy, United States Attorney for the Southern District of California.

San Diego and Tijuana’s geology lends itself to tunneling. The clay-like soil is self-shoring. Tunnel diggers’ are equipped with expensive tools. “For example, we have information that the cartels are purchasing highly sophisticated equipment that is capable of cutting through metal and concrete at costs as high as $50,000 to $75,000,” said Duffy, who added that the digging technology is outpacing detection technology and called for the development of new tools.

Above ground, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Associate Director James Dinkins said collaboration with Mexican authorities is key to cracking down on tunnels. “This year, eight of the 11 tunnels we’ve discovered were first detected by Mexican authorities in Mexico,” said Dinkens.

This summer, ICE plans to create a “joint investigative tunnel response team” with it’s Mexican counterparts, to find and identify tunnels on the Mexican side of the border. Dinkins said the team will first focus on the Tijuana and then expand border-wide.

Duffy said most tunnels are discovered through old-fashioned source work. She said the Sinaloa drug cartel, which she said operates in 40 countries and is believed to smuggle 25-percent of all drugs into the U.S., is thought to be responsible for most of the sophisticated cross border tunnels.

Meanwhile, Tim Durst, ICE Special Agent In Charge in San Diego, says there is no evidence that smugglers use the tunnels to illegally carry cash south into Mexico.

Feinstein first introduced tunnel legislation in 2006 that, for the first time, made building or financing a cross-border tunnel illegal.


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