EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Mexican officials responding to a tip from U.S. authorities say they were unable to locate a purported second illegal tunnel leading from Juarez to El Paso.
The Mexican National Guard and Chihuahua state police searched areas near the Juarez Chamizal Park on Tuesday afternoon. They found what appears to be an old drainage tunnel near sunken soccer fields along Avenida Heroico Colegio Militar, but they said it doesn’t lead to the U.S.
“The tunnel (found) during this operation does not represent an illegal crossing into the United States,” the Chihuahua state police said in a statement Tuesday night. “However, the (search) operation will continue intermittently in the next few days, given that CBP has said another tunnel could possibly exist in the area.”
Chihuahua authorities said U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials and representatives from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration were invited to witness Tuesday’s tunnel search.
On Jan. 9, the U.S. Border Patrol’s Confined Spaces Entry Team acting on a tip from Homeland Security Investigations located a tunnel near Gate 28 of the border wall in El Paso. The tunnel originated 300 meters south, in Juarez.
Chihuahua officers assigned to a cyber crimes unit last week came across social media videos in which smugglers advertised illegal crossings to the United States through a “new” tunnel. Videos since taken down from a TikTok account showed what appeared to be a large circular underground structure where people could walk upright.
The veracity of the videos has not been confirmed by officials on either side of the border.
Earlier, a former Border Patrol sector chief in El Paso and Tucson, Arizona, told Border Report there is a high possibility more border tunnels built and used by criminal organizations that smuggle drugs and people to the U.S. exist between Juarez and El Paso.
On Wednesday morning, a new search took place farther west, but Mexican officials told Border Report news partner ProVideo that, as of noon, they had not found any underground structures leading to the U.S.