Indictment follows arrest in Mexico
A federal grand jury returned the indictment Thursday, charging Hernández with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and three conspiracies: constructing or financing a cross-border tunnel, using such a tunnel to import controlled substances, and importing controlled substances.
Federal prosecutors identified him as Luis Manuel Hernandez Victoria, of Guadalajara, Mexico. Mexico's Security Cabinet reported that he was arrested Oct. 15 in the state of Jalisco. Authorities seized weapons, drugs and a vehicle in that operation.
Hernández is also known as "El Ingeniero," or "The Engineer." In a statement Thursday, U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said, "Hernandez engineered his own downfall."
The indictment places the start of construction in 2023. Prosecutors attribute the tunnel to the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel, which the Trump administration designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2025.
According to prosecutors, each of the two drug-conspiracy charges carries a potential life sentence if Hernández is convicted. The material-support charge and the conspiracy to construct or finance the tunnel each carry a maximum prison term of 20 years.
A hidden passage beneath Buy 4 Less
The tunnel was discovered in late May beneath Buy 4 Less, a purported discount store on Roll Drive near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. Its U.S. exit lay under a storage-room floor, with access provided by what prosecutors called a "sophisticated hydraulic lift." The other end was at a home in Tijuana.
Federal prosecutors described a passage approximately 1,933 feet long, about 55 feet underground and roughly 4.5 feet high. It had reinforced walls, electricity, ventilation and a rail system.
The U.S. Attorney's Office also provided estimates for the portions on either side of the border: about 1,064 feet between the store and the border, followed by roughly 800 feet in Mexico to the entry point.
Investigators had been watching the store for months. According to prosecutors, Homeland Security began surveillance in December 2025 after noticing suspicious activity: a rotating group of seven or eight purported employees repeatedly moved large numbers of suitcases through the building, while few customers visited.
Cocaine seizure and earlier charges
When authorities discovered the tunnel, they seized more than a ton of cocaine with an estimated value exceeding $45 million. The U.S. Attorney's Office said the drugs were recovered from a van and two trucks that either left Buy 4 Less or received cargo from a vehicle that had departed the store. The seizure totaled 851 packages weighing 2,269.87 pounds.
Prosecutors said Hernández is the seventh person charged in the continuing investigation. Four defendants charged earlier were Gregorio Epifanio Hernandez Lopez, 29, and Jose Jimenez, 32, both of San Diego; and Antonio Cortez, 18, and Brandon Escalante Sandoval, 26, both of Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The office said the passage was the first discovered in the Southern District of California since 2022 and one of 99 found there since 1993.
