El Chapo’s drug tunnel architect is jailed for 10 years for creating underground passageways fitted with rail tracks, hydraulic steel doors and elevators to shuttle narcotics from Mexico to California

A high-ranking Sinaloa Cartel member who was the architect of tunnels linking Mexico to California was sentenced by a San Diego federal court on Wednesday.

José Sánchez got 10 years and one month in prison for drug distribution conspiracy, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. 

Known as “El Señor de los Tuneles” or “The Man of the Tunnels,” Sánchez admitted during a court hearing in December 2020 to masterminding the construction of various underground passages that allowed Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s transnational organization to smuggle drugs from Tijuana to San Diego.

“I promise I will not do anything illegal again, because the easy way to get money is usually the bad way to get it,” he said during his court hearing. 

The 58-year-old told the government he planned, covered the costs and oversaw construction of the cross-border tunnels from 2010 to 2012. 

However, under the indictment and plea bargain agreement he was only found guilty of setting up two passageways. 

A San Diego federal court sentenced José Sánchez to 10 years and one month in prison during a court hearing Wednesday. Sánchez admitted to being the mastermind of the construction of various underground passages that allowed Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s transnational organization to smuggle drugs from Tijuana, Mexico to San Diego

Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán's Sinaloa Cartel was known for using underground passageways to smuggle drugs from Tijuana, Mexico to San Diego

A secret tunnel connecting warehouses in Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego was discovered by authorities November 29, 2011. It was built by José Sánchez, a ranking member of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán's Sinaloa Cartel

Sánchez was arrested in Mexico in 2012 and served almost eight years in prison as his extradition played out. In January 2020, Sánchez was extradited to the United States, where he has been in custody for a year and a half. 

He could be released from jail in the coming months due to good behavior and because he spent years in prison in Mexico. He will likely be deported to Mexico after his release. 

A Mexican soldier patrols a tunnel discovered at a warehouse in Tijuana on Thanksgiving 2010. It spanned 612 yards and was equipped with rail tracks that linked it to a second building in the San Diego neighborhood of Otay Mesa

A Mexican soldier walks through a trans-border tunnel - connecting two warehouses in Tijuana and San Diego - on November 30, 2011. The passageway was planned and financed by José Sánchez, a ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel, who was sentenced by a San Diego federal court Wednesday

The first tunnel was discovered Thanksgiving 2010. It spanned 612 yards and was equipped with rail tracks that linked a warehouse in Tijuana to another in the San Diego neighborhood of Otay Mesa.

On the Mexico side, it included a hydraulically controlled steel door and an elevator hidden under the warehouse floor. More than 22 tons of marijuana were removed from the San Diego warehouse by authorities. 

According to the indictment, the second tunnel was discovered November 29, 2011 in the same area.

The underground passage stretched 600 yards between the United States-Mexico border, and led to the seizure of 32 tons of marijuana, including 26 tons that were confiscated on the San Diego side - one of the largest busts in U.S. history. 

View of a trans-border tunnel and wagons found in Tijuana, Mexico on November 29, 2011. The underground passage covered 600 yards between the United States-Mexico border and led to the seizure of 32 tons of marijuana, including 26 tons that were confiscated on the San Diego side - one of the largest busts in U.S. history.

Authorities carry out the inspection of one of the two cross-border tunnels that José Sánchez was accused of building for the Sinaloa Cartel to smuggle marijuana from Tijuana, Mexico, to the San Diego neighborhood of Otay Mesa

More than 54 tons of marijuana were recovered from two warehouses in San Diego that were connected to other ones in the Mexican border town of Tijuana

Sánchez moved from Mexico to Los Angeles in his 20s and spent almost 20 years there, becoming a legal resident of the United States before he returned to his native country in 2005, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Sánchez reportedly oversaw the smuggling of drugs for the cartel in the Mexican states of Jalisco and Baja California.