El Paso Border Patrol clips ninja-turtle style smuggling try in manhole tunnel

Cowabunga! Those weren't the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

U.S. Border Patrol agents found and arrested 11 undocumented migrants inside an underground storm drainage tunnel during an illegal border-crossing attempt in El Paso's Segundo Barrio last week.

The human smuggling in manhole tunnels was discovered on Aug. 13 when El Paso Independent School District police spotted several people exiting the Sixth Avenue storm drain outside Guillen Middle School, the Border Patrol said.

Immigration: Mexico to compensate families of migrants killed in Juárez detention center fire

The school campus is located next to a curve of the César Chávez Border Highway along the Rio Grande. It is not unheard of for South Side residents to talk about seeing migrants pop out of manholes.

EPISD police contacted the Border Patrol, which dispatched its Confined Space Entry Team, a unit specially trained to search the potentially dangerous maze of drainage tunnels.

Border Patrol agents were able to hear the migrants inside the storm drain and ordered them to continue their path and exit. Agents arrested 11 undocumented migrants from Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador, officials said.

The migrants were medically cleared and processed under Title 8, whose consequences include expedited removal, criminal penalties and a five-year reentry ban.

Danger lurks in El Paso's border drainage tunnels

In comics and cartoons, the fictional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live inside sewer tunnels. But in reality, underground tunnels can be very dangerous.

For decades, human smugglers — commonly known as "coyotes" — employed by El Paso-Juárez border criminal groups have attempted to exploit drainage tunnels in El Paso as underground passages to enter the United States.

The city of El Paso has about 300 miles of storm drains, ranging from 18 inches to 9 feet wide, that carry rain runoff from the mountains into canals and the Rio Grande.

Migrants can potentially get lost, stuck, drown or suffocate within the complex system, which could hide other potential hazards such as chemicals, toxic gases and venomous insects and animals, the Border Patrol said.

Border: Texas' Rio Grande buoys are mostly on Mexico's side of river, international agency says

The drainage tunnels have been used for decades in potentially dangerous immigrant smuggling attempts.

In 2003, a Brazilian man died of positional asphyxiation after getting stuck inside a 24-inch storm drain that runs under the César Chávez Border Highway near Park Street in the Segundo Barrio.

Residents can anonymously report suspicious activity, including stash houses and smuggling, to the U.S. Border Patrol at 1-800-635-2509.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso Border Patrol clips storm tunnel migrant smuggling attempt