outpost that is part of San Diego, where the clay-like soil allows for larger and deeper passages and warehouses help conceal tunnel exits. The tunnels are often more than 1,000 feet long, shored
up with concrete or wood, and are equipped with ventila- tion systems, phones, and lighting. Astonishingly, in one, an electric rail system capable of pushing tons of pot under the border hummed along at about 20 miles per hour. The tunnels typically begin in a home in Mexico, run
under the border fence, and emerge in a warehouse district used to store products for legitimate trade. Border agents usually fi nd them by watching warehouses on the U.S. side for activity that seems abnormal, such as late-night work shifts or trucks parked out front that never seem to move. In 2009, they discovered one beneath a false bathroom
fl oor built onto a hydraulic lift that descended 90 feet below ground. “It was an engineering marvel,” remarked Jerry Conlin, a U.S. border-patrol agent, who added the tunnel had ventilation, lighting, and a phone. After a tunnel is dis- covered, federal offi cials fi ll it with concrete slurry to close it, he said. Federal agents believe the archi-
tects come from Durango, in northern Mexico. They believe there is a small group of trusted engineers — highly valued and guarded by the drug lords employing them — responsible for designing and overseeing construction of the tunnels. Federal offi cials say they know of just one architect
Otay Mesa (8) San Ysidro (2) Tecate (2)
eluded authorities until 2003. He was sentenced to 18 years in a Tucson prison in 2006. “If you have an engineer who’s building you really good tunnels, you’ll protect that com- modity,” said Tim Durst, the assistant special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In the past two years, agents in San Diego seized about
100 tons of pot with an estimated value of $60 million from various tunnels. In that time, prosecutors have won 20 con- victions in connection with tunnels on the San Diego bor- der, said Sherri Walker Hobson, the assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. Federal prosecutors in San Diego are calling on Mexico
to extradite Jose Sanchez-Villalobos after a grand jury indicted him last year on 13 counts of drug smuggling and tunnel building on the border, including one dubbed the Marconi tunnel. Prosecutors say Sanchez-Villalobos is a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa drug cartel. Despite those successes, investigators here and in Mex-
TUNNELS FOUND San Diego
Calexico (4)
Tierra del Sol (2)
ico have struggled to fi nd the engineers. Investigators believe they know the identity of one, but catching up to him seems problematic: “We hit several roadblocks in locating that person,” special agent Durst said. Offi cials are perplexed about how engineers manage to construct a tun- nel to ultimately emerge at exactly the right spot on the U.S. side. Durst
San Luis (1)
arrested and prosecuted in the United States: Felipe de Jesus Corona-Verbera, who built one of the fi rst sophis- ticated tunnels discovered at the border, a 200-foot-long passage from Mexico into Arizona used to funnel cocaine. The tunnel was discovered in 1990, but Corona-Verbera
believes they use compasses, but he is curious about how they manage without a global-positioning device, which won’t work underground. “There are so many questions,” Durst said. “What are their techniques? How the heck do they build these things so well?”
Reprinted by permission of The Wall Street Journal, Copyright ©2013 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. License number 3083120106608
The Makings of the Marconi Tunnel Tunnel equivalent in length to seven football fields, with elaborate ventilation, electricity, and storage.
Tijuana House MEXICO
Concrete-block walls Electric lights
Air pipes Wood supports
DRUGS
————————————————————————————————— Total Length 2,200 feet ————————————————————————————————— Diagram not to scale
USA
Storage chamber: 7 ft. tall
Pushcart on rails
Tunnel: 4-5 ft. tall
Steps carved into clay soil
Border Wall
U.S. Warehouse
BONNIE LALLKY-SEIBERT
————— 90 feet —————
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