By "El Huaso" for Borderland Beat
Authorities captured two tunnel drilling machines after searching a building in Mexicali, Baja California, according to a Federal Attorney General's Office (FGR) press release. The machines were being used to drill a tunnel for smuggling narcotics between Mexicali, and Calexico, California.
Authorities investigated after receiving an anonymous tip reported armed men. Policía Federal Ministerial searched the building, where they located the tunnel drill, which was being used to create a tunnel between Mexicali and Calexico, on the United States side of the border.
The machine appears to be a Vermeer Navigator D24X40 SERIES III Directional Drill. On the used market, these cost between $150,000 - 400,000 USD.
This specialized machine is used for boring holes through earth and rock. According to the manufacturer site, this model is one of the quietest directional drills, creating a noise measuring 103 decibels, about the sound a subway train makes.
Photos show walls of the building covered with sound absorbing foam panels, used to muffle the noise created from the digging.
Tunnels like this one are used to smuggle narcotics under the border wall, bypassing smuggling in vehicles through one of the border crossings. United States authorities have identified this region as being replete with narco tunnels, with US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar claiming that there are over 200 in the area. It is unclear if he meant at that time, or in a certain time frame.
Retired DEA agent Mike Vigil told InSight Crime that narco tunnels cost criminal groups in Mexico around 1 - 2 million USD to create, but can pay off their value quickly.
Source: FGR Press release, InSight Crime, MachineryTrader, Vermeer, Zeta Tijuana
