One-ton cocaine bust reveals secret US-Mexico tunnel

Federal prosecutors have charged four suspects with trafficking more than one ton of cocaine for the Jalisco New Generation cartel, alleging they used a fake San Diego retail store as a front for a tunnel to Tijuana. The defendants include two Mexican nationals and two Americans, aged 18 to 32.

One, Gregorio Epifanio Hernandez Lopez, also faces the charge of "constructing, financing or using unauthorized tunnels". Homeland Security Investigations began surveilling the shop, called "Buy 4 Less" near the Otay Mesa crossing, in December, the federal complaint says.

Agents observed behaviour that did not fit a normal retail operation: few customers, men coming and going with suitcases — sometimes carried across the border — and on 29 May they watched suspects load deep freezers into a truck. San Diego county sheriffs stopped the truck and drug‑sniffing dogs flagged the packages; searches of two other vehicles turned up more drugs.

United States, San Diego

cocaine, cjng, tunnel, san diego, tijuana, fake store, otay mesa, homeland security, gregorio hernandez, drug trafficking