DRUG SMUGGLERS TUNNEL INTO U.S.

Tight Security Sends Crime Underground

TECATE, Mexico - It was a typical bedroom with long curtains and a plush,
floral rug - except that the fireplace wasn't just for keeping things cozy.

When police removed the metal grill holding charred logs, they found a
secret tunnel to the United States.

Over the past decade, officials have discovered at least 16 tunnels along
the 2,000- mile U.S.-Mexico border, all thought to be used for smuggling drugs.

Six have been found since December, and federal law enforcement officials
on both sides of the border said they believe five started operating after
Sept. 11.

This suggests to them that heightened U.S. border security is driving more
smugglers to the underground route.

"We firmly believe there is a direct relation to our fortification of the
border," said Vincent Iglio, associate special agent in charge of the U.S.
Customs Service in Tucson, Ariz.

The passage behind the fireplace was discovered in February in an isolated
ranch house 20 miles east of the Mexican border town of Tecate. It had
rails on which smugglers would send cocaine on electric carts on a 300-yard
journey into a house in Tierra del Sol, Calif.

Although it is believed to have gone undetected for 10 years, the other
recently discovered tunnels seem newer and more hastily dug.

One was still under construction when U.S. Border Patrol agents stumbled
upon it last month. Another, found in March, was built to bypass the
entrance of another tunnel that had been discovered and sealed with concrete.

The 85-foot sealed tunnel, found in December, ran from a Nogales home in
Arizona to a concrete drainage canal in Mexico, where smugglers covered the
opening and resealed it with cement each time they used it.

U.S. Customs authorities said they believe it had been operating only three
months, in which time smugglers moved some $20 million worth of cocaine and
marijuana.

Another tunnel believed put into operation since Sept. 11 and found last
month ended in a parking lot near the U.S. Customs office in Nogales.

Authorities on both sides of the border are looking for more, but it's a
challenge.

"We can't go around doing seismic graphs, and we can't check without a
search warrant," said Donald Thornhill Jr., spokesman for the Drug
Enforcement Administration in San Diego.

The most elaborate tunnel, found 12 years ago, ran 100 yards from a home in
Agua Prieta, Mexico, to a warehouse in Douglas, Ariz. It was accessed by
using hydraulic lifts that raised the entire floor of the home's game room.

Seven of the tunnels connected to storm drains linking the two cities named
Nogales on either side of the Arizona border.

Years ago, street children lived in the drains and charged smugglers for
the right to pass. Migrants also traipsed through the darkness until
several drowned in a rush of flood waters and the U.S. Border Patrol
started monitoring the tunnels' openings on the U.S. side.

Thornhill said he doesn't believe terrorists might use the tunnels. "Drug
traffickers have them pretty well locked up," he said. "It's such a bonanza
for them. I don't think terrorists would be welcome."