Engineer Indicted Over San Diego Cartel Drug Tunnel

Luis Manuel Hernandez Victoria, known as “El Ingeniero,” was indicted on charges alleging he designed and built a tunnel for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) to smuggle drugs from Tijuana into San Diego. Discovered beneath a retail store near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, the 1,933-foot passage had electricity, ventilation and a rail system; authorities seized more than a ton of cocaine valued at over $45 million. Hernandez, arrested in Mexico in October, is the seventh person charged in the case. The charges include conspiring to build and use a cross-border tunnel and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization; the investigation is ongoing.