Border Patrol agents poured cold water on a scuba-diver who officials said used a partly underwater tunnel in a failed bid to smuggle over 50 pounds of cocaine into the US from Mexico.
Honduran national Evelio Padilla-Zepeda, 28, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in San Diego to possession of drugs with intent to distribute.
The feds found the furtive frogman next to the All-American Canal, about seven miles east of Calexico, Calif., on April 25.
He was nabbed near an air tank equipped with a “rebreather” — a device which prevents surface bubbles — and vacuum-sealed, gift-wrapped packages of the coke, valued at $1,774,400, the LA Times reported.
The exit canal of the Mexicali drug smuggling tunnel.Photo: AP
The 150-foot-long tunnel began at a house in Mexicali, Mexico, and ended under the canal.
“Drug smugglers will try anything to move their product — even scuba diving in an underwater tunnel,” said US Attorney Laura Duffyl. “The ingenuity of the smugglers is matched only by our determination to thwart it.”
Padilla-Zepeda, who had been living in Mexicali, was told he would be helping get people across the border – but was later notified that he’d be smuggling drugs instead after he jumped a fence, the criminal complaint said.
Authorities have not said whether they know who built and operated the tunnel, or whether others would be arrested.
Padilla-Zepeda faces a maximum of 20 years in prison at his Dec. 7 sentencing.
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