Feds find a tunnel leading from the kitchen of an old KFC in Arizona to a trap door in a bedroom in Mexico which smugglers pulled bags of drugs along using a rope
The tunnel ran for 200 yards between San Luis in Arizona to San Luis Rio Colorado in Mexico
It was built by Ivan Lopez who bought the old KFC in April this year for $340,000
Police arrested Lopez for a traffic violation on August 13 and found him with $1.1million worth of drugs
They were in toolboxes in his truck which he had just driven out of the old KFC
The tunnel is 5ft tall, 3ft wide and 22ft deep and leads to a Mexican compound
The other entrance to it is found at a trap door under a bed in the property
Federal border patrol agents have found a suspected drug tunnel leading from Mexico to the kitchen of a former KFC in Arizona.
The tunnel ran from San Luis in southern Arizona across the border into San Luis Rio Colorado, less than a mile away. It is 22 feet deep, 5 feet tall, 3 feet wide and runs for 600ft into Mexico.
Agents believe the smugglers were using ropes to pull them along. Police discovered it after arresting the owner of the old KFC during a traffic stop.
On August 13, police in Arizona stopped Ivan Lopez and found 18 kilograms of methamphetamine, six grams of cocaine, three kilograms of fentanyl, 13 kilograms of white heroin and six kilograms of brown heroin in his truck.
The combined street value of the drugs is $1,165,800. The fentanyl alone was enough for three million doses.
Lopez, who lives in Yuma, Arizona, had just driven away from the former fast food restaurant where he was seen lifting toolboxes out of the property.
The drugs were found inside the toolboxes.
He bought the abandoned property in April with cash, paying $389,000 for it
It sits just a few hundred yards from the border.
Police say the construction of the tunnel would have been expensive.
'This tunnel would take this drug trafficking organization a long time to construct and would have been very expensive.
'Such an endeavor necessarily requires a combination of several individuals on both sides of the border, engaged in an intricate, risky transnational conspiracy to construct such a secretive structure,' Border Patrol Agent Scott Brown said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Lopez, who has previous arrests in Arizona for drug possession, drug dealing and traffic offenses, was taken into custody.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6091365/Feds-drug-tunnel-leading-kitchen-old-KFC-Arizona-Mexico.html