A “ Magical’ wardrobe that leads to somewhere special, but it isn’t Narnia

 A very usual-looking house located in Tijuana, Mexico had been hiding some deep secrets for many years. Though it looked completely ordinary and insignificant, a very strange part of it was hidden from everyone. But as they say, you can’t hide a secret for long. Authorities got hold of what was going to be kept hidden beneath its walls, and the secret was no more.

 

 You have probably watched Chronicles of Narnia , or read the books at some point in your life. The story revolves around three siblings who get teleported to a fantasy world of witches, magic and vivid nature through a wardrobe. Narnia’s universe is a pure fantasy, but what if you were able to find a magical wardrobe like this in reality?

It was a sunny and quiet morning. The house in question was surrounded by authorities. No one in town has ever seen so many vehicles there, especially not around a single house, something was wrong, and it was soon to be revealed. 

Officers entered the room and unbolted the wardrobe, only to find out it was completely empty, with no cupboard at all.

We all have heard about the secret passageways behind library shelves or hidden under stairs, but  how many times have you heard passageways lurking inside cupboards? 

The officers weren’t so surprised as they were already expecting something like this. They had been informed that something illegal was going on inside, to their surprise, nothing of sort was found.

The only unusual thing about the house  was a wardrobe that turned out to be an elevator. An elevator leading to a mysterious place.

The elevator was spacious enough to accommodate 8 to 10 people at one time. Officers got into the elevator and pressed those buttons, as they had no idea where was it going to take them.

 The elevator eventually led to a small entrance that soon turned into a tunnel. The place was five feet tall and three feet wide, enough space for a man to walk through it. Even the fact that the entrance was quite small in size and included a dangerous climb did not stop some people from entering it. 

Soldiers who got inside the passageway, that was on the west of A.L. Rodriguez International Airport had to go 10 feet ladder down to reach the muddy path of the tunnel.

The tunnel was 3 feet wide and stretched over 500 feet. It was equipped with all the necessities. Many tunnels were discovered before but this one was unique. 

The tunnel leads to an extremely small exit. It opened up in the back of a pallet warehouse. Smugglers often purchase legal businesses in order to keep their real money-generating business under cover. As of now, officials had gotten their hands on the tunnel and now they needed to get to the man who was using it.   

After a while, the officers saw a truck making its way out of the pallet factory. The vehicle was bound to some place in central San Diego. The truck was carrying boxes. Their instincts were absolutely right, the boxes were carrying  drugs. 

The truck was carrying a significant amount of illegal narcotics, there was a ton of cocaine along with over seven tons of marijuana. Now that the officers found out what the house was being used for, it was time to catch whoever was behind this criminal network.

Authorities went on nabbing six suspects. People who got arrested by the officers included two Cubans, one American, and three Mexicans. Usually, in cases of this sort, culprits have ties with people or parties living on the other sides of the frontier.   

Laura Duffy, U.S. Attorney said, “On the surface few would ever suspect that traffickers were moving drugs worth tens of millions of dollars in such an unassuming way. It’s a rabbit hole. Just the whole way it comes up out right into the open. It is a bit ingenious.”

“If you continue to build and attempt to use these tunnels, we are determined to make this a big waste of your dirty money.” “Not only will we take your drugs and shut down your tunnels before you even get an opportunity to use them, but we’re now in a position where we’re going after your management,” she added

Duffy further explained, “It was just two years ago, November 2011, that we discovered and shut down two elaborate super tunnels like the one here today.” “And at the time we did so, we stood before you and we warned the cartels directly. If you build them, we’re going find them, and if we find them, we’re going to destroy them. Today, we again make good on that promise,” she concluded.

Laura Duffy further clarified, “Marijuana is something we regularly find in these tunnels, but not cocaine … we believe this to be the greatest seizure of cocaine carried out in a tunnel on the border,”

The border patrol finally put the pictures of the tunnel in the public domain with details related to its construction. Initially, it was really tough for officers to believe how spacious and well facilitated the tunnel was.

It was equipped with ventilation, electricity and even water pumps if a flood ever strikes. 

Though there is no clarity over when this tunnel was built, Margarita Ontiveros working at a legal firm located around the tunnel exit has something to share. She said the work of wooden pallets began a year ago. She recalled, “They loaded and unloaded a lot of pallets.”

How did the authority find out about the tunnel? Duffy explains, “The investigation began with an astute border patrol agent who identified this business as suspicious,” She added, “They began monitoring this location and saw the people here conducting dry runs.”

What made investigators grow more suspicious was the heavy traffic concentrated in that particular area. Duffy is “fairly confident” that there would have been many drug-load in this month. She also did not deny the possibility that some of them would have gone unchecked.

Tunnels of this kind are quite common on the borders. Authorities have managed to find 13 tunnels since 2006. Even though the police were keeping an eye on the San Diego warehouse for a whole year, they still were not sure as to how long the tunnel had been used. They even suspected one of the tunnels to be taken in use by defamed drug dealer El Chapo.         

For Joaquín Guzman Loera, the Mexican drug trafficker better known as El Chapo used to build tunnels in order to operate. Once the man even managed to escape a prison cell with the help of the tunnel he had built.    

 He got out of the cell through a small hole he dug under his shower cell. The man soon landed into a tunnel that ran to a motorcycle. Interestingly, that bike was capable of running on a track. The bike took him to the warehouse at a distance of a mile. Despite his smart plan, his escape route wasn’t fool-proof and he was captured by authorities before he got the chance to run away for good and regain his operations.

Though the idea of building tunnels for safe transportation of drugs was of Chapo, the model has been followed by many smugglers. Authorities came across another tunnel in 2003 with the length of six football fields that accommodated lighting, ventilation, and many other automated track instruments for convenient transportation.

The general office stated, “Presumably, one of these tunnels was being used by a criminal organization operating in the state of Sinaloa for smuggling drugs into the United States.” This was one of many organizations that were in function.

These sophisticated tunnels are equally expensive to construct. The cost can range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. But at the same time, the cost gets covered in one shipment only of drugs that accrues the smuggler way more than they spend on the building of the tunnel. Furthermore, the tunnels also are used for illegal immigration.

In 2016, authorities discovered 380-mile-long passageway that began from Mexico and exited in a California based restaurant. To put it more clearly, the size of the tunnel was large enough to fit people fleeing Mexico through it, theoretically. So, this is quite possible that the immigrants using the passageway could be delivering drugs for the smugglers in the trade of using the path.        

In total, authorities have found about 115 tunnels linking Mexico and the United States. Notably, before the defamed 9/11 attack only 11 tunnels had been discovered by the officials. With the upgrade in technologies and hence security measures, drug traffickers had to dig more alike tunnels to continue in this business.          

Tunnels are primarily built to smuggle marijuana from one city, state or country to another. Its odor and bulk are difficult to conceal from the border inspectors which makes it difficult to smuggle it through known ways. The best way to get them smuggled is through tunnels.

For building tunnels, the region between San Diego and Tijuana is the most popular. It is because of their easy-to-dig soil. The soil is more clay-like that does not pose any difficulty for shovels and pneumatic tools. 

Moreover, the border has warehouses on both sides. It plays an important part as they work as a cover for heavy tools and trucks. It is because of them only these illegal activities get neglected by the authorities.

Things have become tougher for drug traffickers since the new U.S. sanctions have come into force. The sanction makes it even more difficult to run drugs and goods through tunnels. Authorities have captured many tunnels that were in making. Interestingly, on every completed tunnel, authorities found a couple more unfinished ones hinted by the former.   

If you are thinking that tunnels are the only way of smuggling drugs and people into the country then you are wrong. There are many other ways. The reports regarding capturing of people crouched in cars, backs of trucks, and disguised amongst livestock have emerged every now and then.    

A drone was found crashed at Tijuana’s shopping center. Surprisingly, the drone was holding 3kg of an unidentified drug. The incident took place in January. Smugglers have come up with many new ways.

 

There have been many more cases of drug transportation through illegal means in San Diego. Joe Hernandez, Customs and Border Protection Agent explained, “This area used to be so dangerous that we couldn’t do what we are doing right now.” “We couldn’t just drive into this area, we would’ve been assaulted within seconds of being here.”

Unfortunately, the drug smuggling through tunnels and hidden passages seems to be an unstoppable thing. David Shaw, Unzueta’s successor at Homeland Security Investigations believes now Cartels “operate like a business,” and continues, “If you put up one wall, they find a way to get around it.” So will the wall help?

Robert Hood, Acting Port Director said, “We probably lead the nation as far as smuggling attempts from aliens and narcotics, so we are very dynamic and very busy.” “It’s a fun place to be if you’re an officer. Something is always going on.”

Despite the authorities’ full attention, drug smugglers still manage to slip by. Hood explains, “When I worked the primary lanes, my goal was to look at the folks as they are coming at me and to determine which one of all this traffic is not like everybody else.” “It’s kind of like when the Secret Service identified counterfeit currency. They know what legitimate currency is like so well that when the bad one comes, you go, ‘That’s it.’