U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials today announced that Yuma Sector Border Patrol and special agents with Homeland Security Investigations discovered a cross-border tunnel at the international border west of the San Luis Port of Entry earlier this week.
Contractors working on the border fence had been moving soil in the area when they uncovered plywood and boards, which agents later determined to be possible tunnel shoring. After further excavation the incomplete tunnel measured approximately 8 to 12 feet below the surface of the ground at the location of the sink hole.
Officials say this is the sixth tunnel discovered in the Yuma Sector.
Mexican military officials secured a similar sinkhole on the Mexican side of the fence, about 10-12 feet south of the original hole. They discovered an aluminum ladder about 6 to 8 feet in length within the hole which was promptly removed by the Mexican authorities at the tunnel entrance in San Luis Rio Colorado.
