US | Thu Oct 22, 2015 10:07pm EDT

Latest U.S. border tunnel linked to drug lord 'El Chapo' Guzman

SAN DIEGO | BY MARTY GRAHAM

Authorities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border have shut the 10th drug-smuggling tunnel to San Diego in more than a decade, a passageway Mexican authorities on Thursday attributed to the cartel of fugitive kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

The tunnel, originating from the Mexican border city of Tijuana, is about eight football fields in length, with the last quarter-mile crossing U.S. territory before ending beneath a carpet warehouse in the busy Otay Mesa industrial district of San Diego, U.S. and Mexican officials said.

The tunnel was uncovered through intelligence gathered by U.S. federal agents who infiltrated a Mexican drug-smuggling ring during the past six months, according to Laura Duffy, the U.S. Attorney in San Diego.

It marked the 10th subterranean passageway from Mexico to Otay Mesa discovered since 2002. Like those and dozens of others found along the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border in the last decade, the latest tunnel was equipped with lighting, ventilation and a rail system for moving goods, authorities said.

Two Mexican government security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the latest passage belonged to the Guzman-led Sinaloa drug cartel.

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