DRUG TUNNEL Canada - U.S.

Friendship tunnel Canada-U.S. under border. Material from DEA is legal. (CNN-News) -- Federal agents have closed down the first known smuggling tunnel under the U.S.-Canada border and arrested on drug charges the three Canadians who allegedly built it, law enforcement authorities said Thursday. The DEA said the newly completed tunnel is the first discovered on the northern border. Several tunnels have been discovered along the Mexico border. The 360-foot tunnel runs from under a Quonset hut on the Canadian side of the border to the living room of a house in Lynden, Washington, authorities said. The town is about 90 miles north of Seattle. After they were tipped about the tunnel while it was under construction early this year, U.S. and Canadian agents jointly monitored the project until it was completed in early July. Authorities said the tunnel -- reinforced by wooden beams and steel bars -- is between 3 feet (1 meter) and 10 feet deep and about 360 feet long. Officials said one of the defendants owned the British Columbia land where the tunnel began, and all of the defendants had cared for the property on the U.S. side to make it appear occupied. "The presence of a tunnel on our northern border threatens the security of countries, whether it is used to smuggle drugs, contraband or even terrorists," said U.S. Attorney John McKay. The owner of the house on the U.S. side of the border has not been arrested, one official said. The officials said they expected the three to be prosecuted in the United States rather than Canada because no illegal drugs were transported from the U.S. side of the border.

Channel: Education
Uploaded: November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am
Author: ZyrafPL

Length: 05:30
Rating: 4.26
Views: 40952

Tags: Canada  cocaine  crack  DEA  drugs  illegal  przemyt  smuggling  speed  tunel  tunnel  underground  USA  

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