Immigration Agents Find Cross-Border Tunnel On U.S.-Mexico Border In San Diego

San Diego, CA (AHN) - U.S. authorities on Thursday said they had discovered an incomplete, 53-foot tunnel near the San Ysidro border that had its U.S. exit hidden by an old sofa cushion.

Agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement early this week found the tunnel. Inspection showed the tunnel had plywood installed as a roof but was only a little over a foot wide in some areas.

According to reports, the tunnel begins with a manhole near the border fence in Mexico, continues nearly 700 feet through a sewage pipe and opens out to a grassy area of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant. Its opening at the plant was covered by a couch cushion.

Tunnels running under the U.S.-Mexico border are used for smuggling humans and illegal narcotics.