B.C. drug smuggling tunnel unearthed

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Smuggling Tunnel

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SEATTLE (AP-CP) — U.S. government agents have shut down a
drug-smuggling tunnel built under the Canadian border between
Aldergrove, B.C., and Lynden, Wash.

Authorities had been monitoring construction of the tunnel for
eight months and sealed it Wednesday, shortly after it opened, making
three to five arrests in the process, a government employee, who had
been briefed by local law-enforcement officials, told The Associated
Press.

The exact length of the tunnel was not known. It ran from a
building on the Canadian side to a house on the U.S. side, 90 metres
from the border, the source said.

The Seattle Times’ website reported that investigators used a
machine that can “see” underground, a video-equipped robot, a
drug-sniffing dog and an air horn to find it.

The tunnel was almost a metre wide and 1.5 metres high with a
concrete floor, the Times reported. It had wood-beam supports,
fibreglass walls, ventilation, video security and groundwater-removal
systems. Several altars with flowers and pictures of saints also were
found inside.

BCTV News on Global reported from Vancouver that the tunnel had been punched through the concrete floor of a Quonset hut.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/07/21/1141285-ap.html