Sophisticated Narco Tunnel With Rail System and Electric Platform Found Under Tijuana
Federal agents found a 265-meter tunnel with rails, lighting and an electric platform used to move drug shipments beneath the Tijuana-San Diego border. The same street has produced at least five narco tunnels in ten years.
Mexican federal agents have uncovered one of the most sophisticated narco tunnels in recent memory beneath a residential neighborhood in Tijuana, a 265-meter passageway outfitted with a rail system, electric lighting, ventilation and a motorized platform designed to shuttle drug shipments into California.
The tunnel, discovered by the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR) during a raid in the Garita de Otay neighborhood, sits roughly 250 meters from the US-Mexico border. Agents found the entrance hidden inside a private home on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Avenue, accessible through a bedroom floor that dropped into a basement connecting to the underground corridor.
The first stretch of the tunnel drops eight meters underground and measures 1.90 meters wide, large enough for a person to walk through comfortably. A second excavation extends straight toward the United States, narrower at 1.40 meters tall by 89 centimeters wide, with walls and ceiling reinforced by wooden beams to prevent collapse.
What distinguished this tunnel from the dozens discovered along the Tijuana-San Diego corridor over the years was its infrastructure. Rails lined the passage for a motorized electric platform used to ferry packages across the border. The platform was found in working condition, though rust on several sections of the rails suggested the tunnel had been in operation for months, possibly longer.
The FGR seized the property and continues to map the full structure and its possible connection to the American side. US authorities have not yet confirmed whether the tunnel surfaced on the California side of the border, though the trajectory points toward the Otay Mesa area of San Diego, a known hotspot for underground smuggling corridors.
A Street That Keeps Producing Tunnels
The discovery is remarkable not just for its engineering but for its location. At least five narco tunnels have been found on the same block of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Avenue over the past decade, making it one of the most consistently exploited corridors for underground smuggling between Mexico and the United States.
Cartels have invested heavily in tunnel construction since the early 2000s, when the first sophisticated passages began appearing along the California border. The Sinaloa Cartel in particular has been linked to the majority of tunnel discoveries, using them to move fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana beneath the border wall that dominates the surface.
The timing of the discovery is significant. US and Mexican authorities have intensified border enforcement in recent months as fentanyl overdose deaths remain the leading cause of death for Americans under 45. Most of the fentanyl entering the US is produced in clandestine labs in Sinaloa and transported north through a combination of legal ports of entry, human couriers and tunnels like the one found in Tijuana.
Tunnels offer cartels a way to move bulk quantities of drugs without the risk of detection at ports of entry, where X-ray technology and canine units have become increasingly effective. The sophistication of this particular tunnel, with its electric platform and ventilation system, suggests a major investment likely backed by one of the well-funded trafficking organizations operating in Baja California.
The FGR has not announced any arrests in connection with the tunnel. The house used as the entrance has been secured as a crime scene while investigators work to identify the operators and financiers behind the construction.