Narco Tunnel Similar to Those Built by El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel Discovered Under Evangelical Center in Mexico

A narco tunnel similar to those built by the Sinaloa Cartel to transport drugs across the border was discovered in Mexico's Baja California state last week.

According to Borderland Beat, authorities confirmed the existence of the narco tunnel in the Luis Donaldo Colosio neighborhood in the city of Mexicali on Friday.

The Attorney General's Office (FGR) reportedly conducted a search at the property on Aguascalientes and Manuel Gomez Morin streets after the military and elements of the State Force and Citizen Security found a hole in the middle of the house that used to be an evangelical center.

Authorities investigated the property after receiving reports that there was a tunnel there. Agents of the National Guard had joined in guarding the area since Wednesday.

Citing sources from the FGR, Zeta Tijuana reported that the narco tunnel was not yet ready, but the digging work was already reaching the United States.

Authorities found machinery used in digging an underground route inside the building. Reports said there were no arrests made, and no one was seen entering the property after several days.

Authorities did not say who they suspected of being behind the narco tunnel but said the builder intended to build a cross-border tunnel because of its size. The Sinaloa Cartel, which specializes in these infrastructural wonders, reportedly operates in the state.

El Chapo of the Sinaloa Cartel Utilizes Narco Tunnels

Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, also known as "El Chapo," is known for his ingenious ways of transporting drugs, including creating and using narco tunnels for his drug empire.

El Chapo also used the narco tunnels to evade capture and law enforcement officials for three decades. The Sinaloa Cartel boss even escaped from Mexico's super-maximum-security prison, Altiplano, through a tunnel on July 11, 2015.

He escaped from prison through the bathroom of his cell and went down to a ladder before entering a more than a kilometer narco tunnel built by his engineers.

The Sinaloa Cartel built the first cross-border narco tunnel in 1989. Since then, the drug cartel has refined the art of underground construction and used these narco tunnels more effectively than any criminal group in history.

Officials have reportedly discovered 181 illicit passageways under the U.S.-Mexico border until 2014. They said most of them have been short and like narrow "gopher holes," just enough for a person to crawl through.

Federal agents noted that the Sinaloa Cartel also specializes in what they called "super tunnels." Authorities said a single "super tunnel" takes several months and over a million dollars to build as it has electric lights, elevators, and ventilation ducts, with disguised entry and exit shafts.

They said these passageways could also reach as deep as seventy feet and were usually tall enough for an adult to walk or ride through. This was the method that El Chapo left to the Sinaloa Cartel for drug trafficking to evade law enforcement.

The Engineer of Sinaloa Cartel Narco Tunnels

Mexican and U.S. authorities have identified Jose Sanchez Villalobos as the mastermind behind the design of the Sinaloa Cartel narco tunnels.

Sanchez was reportedly the builder of the narco tunnels linking Tijuana on the Mexican side and San Diego on the U.S. side. He was released from prison in the U.S. earlier this year after serving a 10-year term for a drug distribution conspiracy.

Sanchez, also one of the Sinaloa Cartel's high-level managers, pleaded guilty in December 2020 to planning, financing, and supervising the construction of several cross-border tunnels from 2010 to 2012.

He also pleaded guilty to overseeing the cartel's operation as smuggling conduits. He was reportedly responsible for transporting drugs in Mexico's states of Baja California and Jalisco and managing marijuana transport from southern Mexico to northern Mexico.

Sanchez was also reported to have overseen two narco tunnels built in the San Diego area to transport drugs. He was also said to have been responsible for deciding who could use the said tunnels for a fee.

Sanchez was arrested in Mexico in 2012 and spent about eight years in custody there. He then spent the rest of his sentence in San Diego after being extradited to the U.S to face charges.

The narco tunnels became a huge part of El Chapo's operation for smuggling and escaping from prisons. The Mexican drug kingpin has earned the reputation of being the "Lord of the Tunnels" for his preference to use the underground.

He was compared to early Juarez Cartel boss Amado Carillo Fuentes, who was dubbed as "Lord of the Skies." Carillo Fuentes was known to transport drugs by using planes.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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