Mexican Police Find Tunnel for Smuggling People Into U.S.

A Mexican federal policeman shines his flash light on the ground of a sophisticated clandestine tunnel that passes under the US-Mexico border on Wednesday, January 25, 2006 in Tijuana, Mexico. In August, 2011, Mexican police found another tunnel believed to have been used to smuggle people into the United States. (AP)

In yet another sign that traffickers are trying to circumvent U.S. border control measures in order to smuggle people and drugs, Mexican authorities have discovered a tunnel dug into a border storm drain that leads into the United States.

Federal police say the tunnel was presumably used to smuggle people into the United States.

It appears smugglers dug a lateral tunnel into a main drain. An exit on the U.S. side was hidden by a cover piled over with dirt.

The tunnel may have also been used to move illicit goods, but the police statement did not specify what goods.

Police said Sunday the tunnel was found Thursday in the Mexican border city of Nogales, across the border from Nogales, Arizona. Police found it acting on information they received after discovering another tunnel in Nogales on Aug. 16.

Border Patrol officials say that since the 1990's, clandestine tunnels have cropped with frequency along the U.S.-Mexican border, which spans almost 2,000 miles.

This is based on a story by The Associated Press.