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Two tunnels were discovered in Nogales over the weekend by Nogales police officers, making a four-day total of three tunnels found in the border city.

Elsewhere, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped 17 people from entering the United States using fraudulent Canadian citizenship cards at the Douglas port of entry.

Officers patrolling an area near downtown Nogales discovered a tunnel east of the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry about 6 p.m. Friday, said Mario Escalante, U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokes-man. Its opening was about 8 feet north of the border fence and hidden by weeds and a piece of plywood, Escalante said.

Agents sent a remote-controlled robot into the tunnel and determined that it was about 10 feet long and originated about 2 feet south of the border.

The second tunnel was found by Nogales police working under Operation Stonegarden, a government-funded program to combat illegal immigration, said Escalante. The officers found the tunnel west of the same port of entry along International Street..

The excavation was inside the Grand Avenue drainageway, a 20-foot-wide tunnel built to divert floodwater but used by smugglers as an avenue into the United States.

Agents will guard the openings of both tunnels until they are secured, by either filling them with concrete or placing grates over the openings.

There have been eight tunnels found in the Tucson Sector in the current fiscal year, which began in October. In fiscal year 2008, authorities found 14 tunnels.

From October 2002 through September 2008 a total of 34 tunnels were found, the agency says.

Also, Customs and Border Protection officers in Douglas stopped 17 Bolivians from entering the United States using fake Canadian citizenship cards. The group — consisting of two families of four adults and 13 minors — triedto enter through the port by presenting the cards, which appeared authentic, said M. Carl Robinson, a spokesman for the Douglas port of entry. Officers spotted slight discrepancies and determined that all the cards were fraudulent, Robinson said.

One man in the group admitted that the cards were fabricated and bought in Mexico. Such cards cost about $500 each, said Robinson. All 17 people in the group were returned to Mexico.