Part of a cross-border drug tunnel collapsed in Nogales, Sonora, only yards from the downtown port of entry.
Mexican officials notified U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Monday that a sinkhole had appeared over the tunnel, a CBP spokesman said Wednesday.
The cause of the approximately 4-foot hole has not been determined yet by CBP, but Mexican media reported the weight of a tourist bus waiting to enter the United States through the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry caused the roof of the tunnel to give way.
The dirt tunnel where the hole appeared was discovered by Mexican officials on Nov. 12 and ran under the vehicle lanes leading to the port of entry, the spokesman said.
The incomplete tunnel measured 2 feet wide and 3 feet tall. It stretched 122 feet, but only about one foot extended into the United States. The intended destination of the tunnel appeared to be an underground water basin north of the border, CBP said in a Nov. 13 news release.
Smugglers regularly tap into the network of drainage tunnels under the border that carry water and sewage from the Mexican side of the border to a treatment plant in Rio Rico, the CBP spokesman said.
All but six of the 114 tunnels discovered under the U.S.-Mexico border have been found in Nogales. The first tunnel was discovered in Douglas in 1990, CBP said in the news release.
The tunnels are filled with concrete after a remediation process is set in motion, the CBP spokesman said.
The tunnel discovered Nov. 12 had not been filled with concrete because CBP was still coordinating with state and local officials to arrange the concrete pour.
Mexican officials told CBP the tunnel collapse was fixed Tuesday.
