By The Associated Press

Published: Friday, December 28, 2012, 6:48 p.m.
Updated: Friday, December 28, 2012

MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities have discovered a sophisticated smuggling tunnel equipped with electricity and ventilation not far from the Nogales port of entry into Arizona, U.S. and Mexican officials said on Friday.

The Mexican army said the tunnel was found the day before when authorities received an anonymous call in the border city. U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed the existence of the elaborate, football field-long tunnel.

Border Patrol spokesman Victor Brabble said the tunnel did not cross into the United States.

The army said the anonymous caller was reporting gunmen standing outside a two-story house in a hilly neighborhood near the international bridge where motorists travel between Mexico and the United States.

Inside the house, soldiers discovered a fake wall inside a storage closet under a staircase that led to a dark room with buckets and clothes. Under a drain cover in that room, soldiers found another staircase at the entrance of the tunnel that went 16 feet underground and measured a yard in diameter. Light bulbs lit the underground passage and pipes stretched across the 120-yard tunnel that Mexican army officials believe was built to smuggle drugs.

More than 70 such tunnels have been found since October 2008, most of them concentrated along the border in California and Arizona. In Nogales, Arizona, smugglers tap into vast underground drainage canals.

There are currently no comments for this story.

1. Monet leads art market back to steadier ground
2. Mexico prepares for tropical storm
3. U.S. scraps $7B in military items it can’t bring home from Afghanistan
4. $21M Kandinsky auction falls short
5. U.S. and Cuba agree to resume migration talks
6. Syrian war becomes religious conflict
7. Morsy’s appointees spark clashes across Egypt
8. Obama revives call for reduction in nukes
9. Protests leave few options for Brazil leader
10. Protesters keep up pressure in Brazil
11. Bomber targets mourners at Pakistan funeral; 29 dead

Subscribe today! Click here for our subscription offers.