Authorities discover tunnel under old Arizona KFC used to smuggle drugs across the border


A traffic stop in San Luis, Arizona, led to the discovery of a tunnel that goes from an old Kentucky Fried Chicken in the United States to a bedroom in Mexico, which authorities believe was used to smuggle drugs.
The tunnel is 22 feet deep and 590 feet long, CBS News reports. Homeland Security Investigations said Thursday that on Aug. 13, officers from the San Luis Police Department pulled over Ivan Lopez, and drug dogs discovered two toolboxes in his truck containing methamphetamine, white heroin, brown heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine. HSI Special Agent in Charge Scott Brown said that just the three kilograms of fentanyl equaled three million dosage units.
Lopez owns the old KFC building, and was spotted earlier in the day removing toolboxes from the former fast food restaurant, CBS News reports. After getting a search warrant, agents found the entrance of the tunnel in the kitchen area, and discovered that it ended at a house in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. Authorities said the tunnel exited through a trap door underneath a bed, and it's likely the drugs were pulled up into the KFC with a rope.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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