Mexican police busted a US border tunnel run by El Chapo's gang

Mexican police busted a smuggling tunnel run by the drug gang of fugitive kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman on the US border stashed with about 10 tons of suspected marijuana, officials said on Thursday.

The elaborate tunnel, which spanned from Tijuana into San Diego, was 9 feet deep, 2,625 feet long (800 meters) and designed to smuggle drugs into the US from Mexico.

The discovery on Wednesday marks one of the longest and more sophisticated clandestine tunnels found under the near 2,000 mile border.

The passage was lit, ventilated, equipped with a rail car system, and built with metal beams to prevent collapse.

Only about 200 meters of the tunnel were in the US.

Like dozens of other tunnels found along the near 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border in the last decade, the CNS said it had lighting, ventilation, and rails for moving goods.

The secret passage not far from the US city of San Diego belonged to Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel, two government security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Guzman, the world's most wanted drug trafficker, escaped in July from a Mexican maximum security prison through a mile-long tunnel that surfaced right in his cell.

His escape sparked a massive manhunt and Mexico's government said on Friday that Guzman had suffered injuries to his face and leg after recently beating a hasty retreat from security forces.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)