The US authorities have discovered a huge high-tech tunnel in a Mexican border town that was kitted out with an electric hoist, ventilation and even a rail system.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) representatives and Mexican officials discovered the 183-foot-long tunnel in the city of Mexicali in the Mexican state of Baja California, close to the US border city of Calexico.

According to ICE, the tunnel was 22 feet underground and about four feet by three feet wide.

The tunnel, fitted with electricity, a hoist, ventilation, and a rail system, was still in progress and fell just three feet short of the border wall with the US.

Cardell T. Morant of the US Department of Homeland Security in San Diego, said drug traffickers use such tunnels to carry out “illicit activities virtually undetected across the US-Mexico border”.

Morant added: “Discovering and shutting down these tunnels deals a major blow to drug trafficking organisations because it denies them the ability to smuggle drugs, weapons and people across the border.”

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) thanked the Mexican government for their cooperation in the ongoing investigation and also asked members of the public to report any subterranean tunnels to their Tunnel Task Force.

HSI is a directorate of ICE and the main investigative arm of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

According to the ICE website, the organisation is “responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organisations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel and finance move.

“HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,100 special agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States, and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries.”