Border Patrol agents say they have found a tunnel at the Mexican border in California used to sneak people into the United States.
Word of the discovery came from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection after agents arrested 30 people who had just come into the country illegally.
Those taken into custody included 23 Chinese nationals (21 men and two women) and seven Mexican nationals (four men and three women).
Agents searched the area and found an opening in the ground with a ladder inside and determined it was a smuggling tunnel.
"The tunnel's exit is located just north of the secondary fence in the vicinity of the Otay Mesa port of entry," CBP said in a statement.
"While subterranean tunnels are not a new occurrence along the California-Mexico border, they are more commonly utilized by transnational criminal organizations to smuggle narcotics.
"However, as this case demonstrates, law enforcement has also identified instances where such tunnels were used to facilitate human smuggling."
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