Mexican police find border tunnel, meth hidden in cheese

MEXICO CITY – Mexican prosecutors said Monday that they had found a tunnel in the border city of Tijuana that led toward or into the United States.

The attorney general’s office did not say whether the tunnel actually reached U.S. soil. But it did say the 563-yard (meter) long passage was equipped with ventilation and lighting.

The tunnel also had rails, apparently used to push loads of drugs through.

The tunnel was about three feet wide and four feet tall, and was built about 23 feet (7 metres) under ground level

Prosecutors found over 2 metric tons of marijuana in packages at the house where the tunnel began on the Mexican side.

Also Monday, federal police said they found 4.2 pounds (1.9 kilograms) of methamphetamine hidden in a wheel of cheese at a package-delivery facility in Mexico City.

Federal police said Monday that an X-ray inspection of the cheese revealed a hidden package. When the block was cut open, police found the drugs wrapped in a sheet of lead and carbon paper.

The carbon paper was apparently intended to reduce any odour. The lead may have been used to impede X-rays.

In another search, federal police in the state of Jalisco used sniffer dogs to ferret out 34 pounds (15.4 kilograms) of heroin hidden in another package at an express-delivery service. Depending on how much it was cut, the heroin could have supplied between 150,000 and 1.5 million one-gram doses.