The shaft, with rails, ventilation and lighting, is believed to be for drug smuggling. It begins in Mexicali and heads toward Calexico, but it stops short of the U.S.

By Richard Marosi
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO — Mexican authorities have arrested eight men after discovering a sophisticated tunnel, believed to be designed to ferry drugs, that nearly reached into U.S. territory.

Baja California state preventive police said Tuesday that they were acting on a tip when they raided a Mexicali home Monday afternoon and found some of the suspects hard at work in the passage, which was longer than a football field.

The tunnel's destination appeared to be a residential neighborhood across the border in Calexico. The tunnel appeared to be well financed and expertly constructed.

It had a rail-and-cart system, ventilation, lighting and an electric lift to transport items up and down the shaft, authorities said.

"What they had constructed was very sophisticated," said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose agents inspected the tunnel.

Numerous drug tunnels have been discovered over the years in the Mexicali-Calexico area, where some cross-border neighborhoods lie only a stone's throw from one another.

The tunnel discovered Monday started in a neatly kept fenced home near downtown Mexicali. The suspects apparently were caught off guard and were arrested in their shorts, work boots and dirt-stained shirts.

Mexican authorities said they didn't know who was behind the tunnel. Such passages, which can cost more than $1 million, usually are financed by drug smuggling operations.

The suspects told authorities that a man would visit the house monthly to pay the work crew, but that he hid his identity with a ski mask, said Agustin Perez Aguilar, the spokesman for Baja California's secretary of public security.