OTAY MESA, Calif. -- Authorities plan to release details Wednesday about a newly discovered smuggling tunnel linking Otay Mesa and Tijuana.
Federal officials declined to release details about the underground passageway prior to Wednesday’s 11 a.m. news conference with U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy and supervising agents with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The discovery, announced Tuesday, came six months after investigators ferreted out a well-appointed tunnel stretching nearly a half-mile underneath the international line between warehouses in the same two border communities.
Law enforcement agents raided that roughly 800-yard-long subterranean passageway -- which was outfitted with ventilation, electric lighting and rails for ferrying contraband -- on the night of Oct. 21, hours after it went into use for the first time, authorities said at the time.
