Drug smugglers have tunneled from Mexico into the All American Canal
The All American Canal is an 80-mile irrigation aqueduct that runs just north of the Mexican border from the Colorado River Imperial Dam northeast of Yuma, Arizona to west of Calexico, California. It is known as “The most dangerous body of water in the U.S.” because more than 500 people, mostly illegal immigrants, have drowned in the canal since 1997. Now drug smugglers have tunneled from Mexico into the canal.
On Wednesday in a San Diego federal court, Evelio Padilla-Zepeda, 28to a drop, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, pled guilty to one charge of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Padilla-Zepeda had been caught April 25 by Border Patrol officers alongside the canal in a wetsuit two miles east of Calexico. Several feet from where he was standing they found two scuba rebreather tanks and 25 vacuum-sealed packages of cocaine. The packages were wrapped in ‘Toy Story’ Christmas paper and weighed a total of 25.15 kg., with a street value of $1,774,400.
Extending their search, the Border Patrol officers discovered an underwater tunnel nearby that ran from Mexico into the canal. The 46 –meter long tunnel contained a crude rail system and had been constructed during the dry season.
Padilla-Zepeda admitted that he was supposed to swim further down the canal to deliver the cocaine to a contact, and then return to Mexico.
Padilla-Zepeda will be sentenced December 7 and faces 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Instead of calling him an illegal immigrant, aren’t we supposed to be be politically correct and call Evelio an undocumented worker?
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