One of the Sinaloa cartel's first tunneling gurus was Felipe de Jesus Corona-Verbera, who graduated from architecture school at the University of Guadalajara in 1980. Corona, who was close with Guzmán, was the driving force behind the cartel's first major tunnel, which connected Agua Prieta in Mexico with Douglas, Arizona.
A makeshift cart with containers is seen at a suspected drug tunnel under construction during a media tour by Mexican Army in Tijuana, April 7, 2015. Mexican soldiers foiled the construction of a suspected drug tunnel underneath a house near the US border, arresting nine people and impounding a truck used to clear debris, the army said. Wired with lights, the tunnel was being built next to the Tijuana border crossing, south of San Diego, California, and near a Mexican air force installation as well as a regional federal police facility.