Mexico-US drugs tunnel found

Police in Mexico have uncovered a tunnel equipped to smuggle drugs under the border and into the US state of Arizona.

Special agents and soldiers raided a home in Nogales and discovered the underground route which stretched 300 metres (985 feet) into the Arizona town of the same name.

The attorney-general's office said the tunnel, which was dug to a depth of four metres (13 feet), contained carts which ran along rails to transport drugs.

Six men were arrested and are believed to be key operatives of one of the country's most powerful drug gangs, officials said.

The smuggling ring in the state of Sonora is headed by a notorious trafficker, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman who escaped from prison in January 2001.

Police had been watching the home in Nogales since the beginning of the year, the head of the attorney general's organised crime unit told a news conference.

Underground routes

Investigators used telephone bugging devices, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

The information allowed US authorities to seize two drug shipments in American territory, he said.

In another discovery, construction workers in the Californian town of Calexico on Friday discovered a tunnel that led under the border to a shop in the neighbouring Mexican city of Mexicali.

Four people were arrested in the shop.

The authorities on both sides of the border have been finding increasing numbers of underground smuggling routes.

In February 2002, US police discovered a sophisticated tunnel approximately 300 metres (1,000 feet) long beneath the border town of Tecate.