World News for Students of English

07-08-2015 15:00

Mexican authorities have discovered an unfinished drug-smuggling tunnel just two blocks from the country’s border with the United States. This tunnel, which emerges in a building belonging to an import/export company in Tijuana, is the third such tunnel found in this area since April when two others were discovered.

Illegal tunnels like these are relatively common along the 2,000 mile (322 kilometres) Mexico-US border and over the past decade alone, more than 75 have been found.

The latest discovery is the first since Mexican cartel boss Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman used a tunnel to escape from a maximum security prison in July. Last week, a Mexican judge temporarily suspended an extradition request for Chapo from the United States where he’s wanted on criminal charges, including cocaine smuggling and money laundering.

Difficult words: emerge (to come out, cartel (a group of people who agree to sell something at a price – usually these people are criminals), temporarily (only for some time), suspend (to stop something officially), extradition (the action of extraditing a person – giving the person to the authorities of a foreign state), money laundering (when you make illegal money look legal).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com