Police Looking For New Cross-Border Tunnel After Finding Videos Of Smugglers Promoting It

Mexican police say they are investigating the possibility that there is another smuggling tunnel crossing into the U.S. after finding social media posts promoting one.

The announcement comes shortly after authorities uncovered one that connected Juarez with the storm drain system of El Paso, Texas. That tunnel, which stretched for over a quarter of a mile, has already been filled from both sides.

The new potential tunnel is in the same area, its existence revealed through social media posts from smugglers promoting it. The publications have been taken down after Juarez outlets reported on them, according to Border Report.

"Our cyber security team came upon these videos where (smugglers) apparently are promoting a new tunnel. A line of investigation has been opened to determine the date the video was recorded and a possible location," said the Chihuahua state police chief of staff Luis Aguirre. He went on to say that authorities are working to determine if the tunnel indeed exists and proceed accordingly.

The first tunnel was described as "sophisticated" by former Border Patrol Chief Victor Manjarrez Jr., who said it was likely used to "bring people from China, from Southeast Asia or Europe that can pay $25,000 to $30,000 to be smuggled to the United States."

"If you go for volume, it becomes a risk because someone could talk. This isn't for the economic migrant you normally see here," said the former official, who worked as chief agent in Arizona and West Texas.

He added that other potential clients could come from what he described as "terrorist" regions. "They may not be on the list itself but come from" there, Manjarrez added, saying they are "the ones more invested in not being detected."

The former agent had anticipated the possibility that there were other cross-border tunnels that had not been discovered yet. "Most tunnels are discovered by human intelligence (...) somebody gets caught, somebody talks, you start looking," he said.