EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Mexican soldiers and police have resumed their search for illegal cross border tunnels between Juarez and El Paso.
On Thursday, officers with the Chihuahua state police and the Mexican National Guard dug in an area a few yards south of the Rio Grande near Juarez City Hall. They found what appeared to be a man-made tunnel, but officials told Border Report news partner ProVideo it did not lead to the United States.
The “tunnel” is likely an old drainage ditch that does not appear in current government records, the officers said at the end of the search.
Earlier in the week, Border Report video showed Mexican National Guard members using steel rods to poke the ground farther east. That was near a spot where on Jan. 9 officials found a quarter-mile long tunnel beginning near a Juarez highway went under the Rio Grande and connected to El Paso’s storm drainage system.
The tunnel likely was used to primarily smuggle migrants, though its use to bring across drugs has not been discounted, officials have told Border Report.
In both recent searches, representatives from U.S. agencies and the American consulate were present to observe, local officials told ProVideo.
