Overview
- Investigators tied a nearly 1,933-foot, reinforced tunnel that reached about 55 feet deep and had electricity, ventilation and a rail system to a May 29 discovery beneath a San Diego retail site where agents seized more than one ton of cocaine.
- Mexican authorities arrested Luis Manuel Hernandez Victoria, known as “El Ingeniero,” in Jalisco on Oct. 15 and seized weapons and narcotics during the arrest, U.S. prosecutors said.
- A federal grand jury returned an indictment at the end of October charging Hernandez with conspiracy to build and use a cross‑border tunnel to import drugs, conspiracy to import controlled substances, and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
- Prosecutors say Hernandez is the seventh person charged in the investigation and that the probe remains active with U.S. and Mexican agencies including HSI, CBP, Border Patrol, DEA, the FBI and Mexican federal authorities.
- If convicted, Hernandez faces life‑maximum terms on some tunnel and import counts and up to 20 years on the material‑support charge, and the case signals expanded U.S. legal tools and sustained cross‑border enforcement against sophisticated cartel smuggling networks.