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 is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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