A supposed discount store near Otay Mesa drew months of federal surveillance before agents moved in. What they say they found below the floor now sits at the center of a cross-border trafficking case tied to the CJNG. The complaint describes a tunnel with rails, ventilation, electricity, and a hydraulic lift, plus a load of cocaine hidden in freezers, boxes, and vehicles. The case also shows how storefronts, warehouse space, and border logistics still shape cartel trafficking routes.
Four charged after Otay Mesa tunnel cocaine seizure
Federal prosecutors in San Diego charged four people after agents found more than one ton of suspected cocaine and a fortified cross-border tunnel running from Tijuana to a storefront near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.
The case centers on a supposed retail business called Buy 4 Less. Investigators say the store was not behaving like a normal shop. Foot traffic was low. A group of people described as employees moved in and out often. Agents also saw suitcases being carried from the business into vehicles or across the border into Mexico.
The tunnel and the seizure were described in a federal drug trafficking case announced June 1 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. Officials said the cocaine was estimated to be worth about $45 million.
The defendants are Gregorio Epifanio Hernandez Lopez, 29, of San Diego; Jose Jimenez, 32, of San Diego; Brandon Escalante Sandoval, 26, of Mexico; and Antonio Cortez, 18, of Mexico. Hernandez Lopez faces charges tied to the alleged use of a tunnel and the alleged importation of controlled substances. All four face a conspiracy charge tied to distribution.
Months of surveillance around a storefront
The investigation began with surveillance of the Otay Mesa warehouse from December 2025 through May 2026. The federal complaint says agents became suspicious after a new group of seven or eight people began appearing at the store late last year.
By January, Hernandez Lopez had been seen at the location, prosecutors said.
The case moved on May 29. Agents watching Buy 4 Less saw a man load three large, heavy items into a white van. The van left the store and parked near a mechanic shop at 923½ Coolidge Avenue. Investigators later identified Escalante Sandoval as a man on a bicycle who was watching the area, looking into parked cars, and checking the street.
Federal prosecutors say Escalante Sandoval later retrieved a hidden key from the gas cap area of the van, backed the vehicle into the Coolidge Avenue property, and lined it up with another white van. A white stake bed truck then entered the property. Agents saw people move three deep freezers onto the truck and load packages into them.
The truck left and was stopped by San Diego County sheriff’s deputies. A police dog alerted to the presence of controlled substances. Around the same time, deputies also stopped another truck that had left Buy 4 Less and a second van linked to the Coolidge Avenue property.
The three stops produced 851 packages. Prosecutors said the packages weighed about 1,029.60 kilograms, or 2,269.87 pounds. A sample field tested positive for cocaine.
Tunnel hid below the warehouse floor
After the seizure, a federal magistrate judge approved searches at Buy 4 Less and the Coolidge Avenue property. Agents found the tunnel exit hidden under the floor of a storage room inside the store.
The passage was reached through a hydraulic lift. Prosecutors said the tunnel was about 55 feet deep and extended about 1,064 feet from the store to the international border. Agents estimate it continued another 800 feet into Mexico.
The full passage was estimated at about 1,933 feet long. It had reinforced walls, rail, ventilation, and electricity. In some areas, it stood up to 4.5 feet high.
U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon used a short line to describe the arrests. “It wasn’t a light at the end of the tunnel. It was lights and sirens,” Gordon said.
Kevin Murphy, acting special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego, said officials viewed the seizure as a blow to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as CJNG. The agency said the tunnel was found through the Homeland Security Task Force investigation.
Border tunnel cases keep returning
The Otay Mesa case comes after another northern border case, in which authorities disabled a Sonora tunnel near the U.S. border, showing how tunnel construction remains part of organized crime logistics along the northern frontier.
Federal prosecutors said 99 subterranean passages have been found in the Southern District of California since 1993. Twenty-eight were considered sophisticated. The last operational tunnel discovered in that district before this case was found in 2022.
The case also fits into a broader U.S. focus on CJNG’s cross-border reach, including questions about how the CJNG network continued to operate after El Mencho and why analysts still viewed the cartel as powerful despite later pressure on its senior figures.
In this case, prosecutors did not describe the tunnel as an unfinished passage or a crude excavation. They described a working system with a concealed lift, electricity, ventilation, and a rail line. The alleged load was already above ground when deputies stopped the vehicles.
The defendants were scheduled for arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Valerie E. Torres. The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Deshong and Jordan Arakawa.
