Two Americans and two Mexicans face federal cocaine distribution charges after being accused of using a tunnel to smuggle drugs into the U.S.
Defendants Gregorio Hernandez, 29, and Jose Jimenez, 32, of San Diego, and Mexicans Antonio Cortez, 18, and Brandon Escalante, 26, are all facing charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, in this case cocaine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California said Monday.
In addition to the distribution charges faced by all four defendants, Mr. Hernandez was hit with charges of conspiracy to use a border tunnel and conspiracy to import controlled substances.
All three counts carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a fine of up to $10 million, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The four are accused of using a tunnel to smuggle drugs, which stretched from Tijuana, Mexico, to the San Diego neighborhood of Otay Mesa, right across the border, which also hosts an official U.S. port of entry.
The tunnel was obscured by a storefront for a business called Buy 4 Less.
The tunnel is 1,933 feet long, 4.5 feet high, 55 feet deep and so sophisticated, it has electricity, a rail system, ventilation and strengthened walls, federal prosecutors said.
Starting last December, seven or eight new people were observed frequenting Buy 4 Less, including Mr. Hernandez.
The Department of Homeland Security developed suspicions and started watching the store because, despite the presence of purported employees, the store received little to no traffic from customers, federal prosecutors said.
Mr. Hernandez and others were also seen taking suitcases out of Buy 4 Less and either putting them into vehicles or wheeling them empty across the Mexican border.
On Friday, agents saw a man load three heavy objects into a white van that left Buy 4 Less while Mr. Escalante conducted surveillance in the area on a bike. He then found the van’s hidden key near the gas cap, got in and drove it to another location before backing it up with its rear facing the rear of another van, federal prosecutors said.
A white bed truck then pulled up, at which point deep freezers were taken from the first van, put on the truck bed and loaded with packages. After that, the truck was moved a short distance away, and Mr. Escalante got out of the truck, retrieved his bike, put the keys under the truck and left, federal prosecutors said.
Mr. Jimenez then went to the scene, got the truck keys and drove off before being stopped by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.
Shortly after that traffic stop, a second truck driven by Mr. Hernandez left Buy 4 Less loaded with heavy boxes, federal prosecutors said.
The second truck was also stopped by the sheriff’s office, as well as the second van, driven at the time by Mr. Cortez. Police dogs alerted officers to controlled substances in both trucks and the second van, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
In total, authorities found 851 packages containing over a ton of cocaine. The seized narcotics have a street value of about $45 million, federal prosecutors said.
Homeland Security Investigations San Diego acting Special Agent in Charge Kevin Murphy said in the U.S. attorney’s office release that the scheme was connected to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and that the seizure of the cocaine is a “significant blow” to the crime group.
After the cocaine was seized, authorities searched Buy 4 Less and found the tunnel’s exit hidden under a floor in the store’s storage room as well as the hydraulic lift used to access the tunnel.
It was the first operational tunnel found in the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California since 2022, federal prosecutors said.
