Authorities find longest-ever border tunnel between Tijuana and San Diego

In August, Mexican authorities in Tijuana found the longest smuggling tunnel ever discovered on the southern border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced on Wednesday.

The tunnel is more than three-quarters of a mile long, with ventilation, drainage, and rail and cart systems, electrical cables and panels, and an elevator at its entrance, The Associated Press reports. The tunnel was found in a parking lot next to a warehouse in Tijuana, and U.S. officials discovered it ended in an open field in Otay Mesa, a San Diego neighborhood.

Extending 4,309 feet, it "blows past" the next longest tunnel in the U.S., which was found in San Diego in 2014 and was 2,966 feet long. "We never really thought they had the moxie to go that far," Lance LeNoir, a Border Patrol operations supervisor, told AP. "They continue to surprise me."

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The tunnel was about 70 feet underground, well below the border wall. Since 2006, 15 similar tunnels, with ventilation, lighting, and railway tracks, have been found near the southern border.