Solar-Powered Underground Tunnel Discovered Under US-Mexico Border

BAJA CALIFORNIA (CBSLA) — The U.S. Border Patrol says agents discovered a solar-powered underground tunnel running across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Last month, Mexico state police and military units found an incomplete cross-border subterranean tunnel while conducting an operation in Jacume, Baja California, Mexico, at a home located approximately 221 feet south of the international boundary, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesman Ralph DeSio.

Mexican officials took over the tunnel and authorized U.S. Border Patrol's Western Corridor Tunnel Interdiction Group (WCTIG) to enter the tunnel through the entrance location in Jacume in order to map and determine if the tunnel had an exit point in the United States, DeSio said.

On Oct. 4, agents found that the tunnel entry point had a shaft that was approximately 31 feet deep, with a total length of 627 feet, of which 336 feet were inside the U.S., according to DeSio.

By comparison, the average size of a tunnel in the United States was three feet in height and roughly two and one-half feet in width.

While massive by most standards, the tunnel had an exit shaft that went approximately 15 feet up toward the surface but did not break the surface and did not have an exit point into the U.S.

Agents also found the tunnel had a rail system that ran the entire length of the tunnel that was powered by solar panels, which also powered the electrical, lighting and ventilation systems that were in the tunnel.

Two sump-pump systems were also found within the tunnel to pump out any water that gathered in the tunnel.

It's unclear whether any arrests were made following the discovery.