The Department of Justice charged four people on Monday for conspiring to distribute $45 million worth of cocaine through a cross-border tunnel between California and Mexico.
Department of Homeland Security investigators seized more than one ton of cocaine last Friday after months of monitoring the site, according to a Department of Justice release.
Defendants were to be arraigned on Tuesday afternoon.
The tunnel: a ‘subterranean passageway’
The discovered “subterranean passageway” connects Tijuana, Mexico, to a Buy 4 Less warehouse in Otay Mesa, California. It is estimated to be 1,933 feet long, 55 feet deep and 4.5-feet in height, according to a release detailing the allegations.
Authorities refer to it as “a sophisticated tunnel” because of its elaborate infrastructure, which includes electricity, reinforced walls and rail and ventilation systems.
The defendants include two San Diego natives — Gregorio Epifanio Hernandez Lopez, 29, and Jose Jimenez, 32 — as well as two Mexican nationals — Brandon Escalante Sandoval, 26, and Antonio Cortez, 18.
All were charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Lopez was additionally charged with conspiracy to use a cross-border tunnel and conspiracy to import controlled substances
“For these defendants, it wasn’t a light at the end of the tunnel. It was lights and sirens,” said federal prosecutor Adam Gordon on Monday.
The 6-month investigation
Investigators began monitoring the warehouse last December when they observed suspicious activity. There was minimal foot traffic observed from customers in and out of the store, and Hernandez and other “employees” were seen transporting several suitcases out of the building.
On May 29, agents observed a man load three large items into a white van and park on a nearby street. Escalante was seen riding his bicycle and conducting counter surveillance.
Escalante later got into the van and backed up to another white van with both vans’ rear doors open. A white stake bed truck entered the avenue, and agents watched people moved three deep freezers from the first van into the truck bed, then place packages in the freezers.
Once packages were loaded, Escalante moved the truck a short distance away and abandoned it. Jimenez retrieved the keys from where Escalante had left them and drove away.
Deputies to San Diego’s county sheriff conducted a traffic stop of the truck, and a K-9 police dog alerted authorities to the presence of controlled substances.
Shortly after, agents observed two unidentified males load boxes from Buy 4 Less into a second truck, which Hernandez drove away. Deputies conducted a traffic stop of the second vehicle and again, a K9 police dog identified controlled substances.
Deputies stopped a second van, driven by Antonio Cortez, and received a K9 alert for the presence of controlled substances.
Between the three cars, 851 packages were discovered and their contents tested positive for cocaine.
After the seizures, a U.S. magistrate judge issued warrants to search the Buy 4 Less, where agents found the tunnel concealed under the floor of a storage room within the warehouse.
This tunnel is one of 99 subterranean passages discovered in the Southern District of California since 1993, according to the release. Of those 99, 28 were considered sophisticated tunnels. The last time an operational tunnel was discovered in the district was in 2022.
The effect: Possible penalties and preserving communities
The maximum penalty each defendant faces is life in prison and a $10 million fine. Defendants will be arraigned on Tuesday afternoon.
This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159 in January 2025. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California is the fourth-busiest federal district due to a large quantity of border-related crimes, according to a press release. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 119 cases related to issues on the border this past week alone.
“The drugs recovered from this sophisticated cross-border tunnel will thankfully never make it into communities throughout California and the United States thereby saving countless lives from the scourges of drug addiction and overdose deaths,” said David King, executive director of San Diego Imperial Valley HIDTA.