Florida city uncovers mysterious network of secret tunnels - as eerie clues about their origin spark wild theories

The discovery of a mysterious network of hidden tunnels beneath a Florida city has sparked wild theories about their origin.

The passageways under Ybor City, a suburb near downtown Tampa, remained hidden for decades before a string of discoveries revealed the subterranean network.

Historians have since speculated widely over their use, from moving moonshine, human trafficking and cash smuggling to simply 'as a sewer'.

The latest tunnels were found in 2018 near the Old Florida Brewery, close to East 6th Avenue and Noccio Parkway, while construction was being carried out on a new office building.

Workers were tearing down a warehouse when they found the hidden passage, tall enough to stand up in with a rounded ceiling.

Spacious tunnels that may have been used for smuggling in Chinese-Cuban prostitutes during Prohibition have been discovered during construction in Tampa, Florida's Ybor City

History professor and researcher Dr. Gary Mormino described the tunnels to DailyMail.com as, 'nothing too remarkable to look at,' flat on the bottom, and wide, making them unsuitable as a sewage system, and all the more interesting to those wondering why they exist

Several of the tunnels are brick-lined and only a few feet tall by a few feet wide - just enough for an adults to crouch or crawl through. The layered brickworks suggests they were constructed by skilled laborers.

There's been talk about mysterious passageways underneath the suburb of Ybor City in Central Florida going back about 20 years, according to University of Southern Florida - St. Petersburg professor Emeritus of history Dr. Gary Mormino.

Professor Dr. Gary Mormino said the tunnels were likely part of a criminal network, and that Ybor City officials would have known

Mormino, 77, who has been researching the history of Ybor City for about 40 years, said the first tunnels of this kind were unearthed about two decades ago when work was being down below a Blue Ribbon grocery store.

'That provoked the question, "Why would you build a tunnel in an area that has a water table of about one foot below sea level?"' he previously told DailyMail.com

While some have guessed the underground passages may have been used by bootleggers, Mormino said that doesn't make sense, and it's more likely they were used to bring in prostitutes or Chinese laborers from Cuba.

Mormino described them as, 'nothing too remarkable to look at,' flat on the bottom, and wide, making them unsuitable as a sewage system, and all the more interesting to those wondering why they exist. 

Dr Mormino's work has attempted to 'rule out' uses for the tunnels, as well as establish their purpose. 

'I'm asking myself, "What were the tunnels not used for?"' he said.

While some are quick to guess they may have been used to transport bootlegged alcohol during the 1920s and early 1930s, Mormino said that doesn't make any sense, either.

In this undated photo federal authorities are shown unearthing a buried whiskey cache in the backyard of a Ybor City home

Mormino told DailyMail.com they were likely part of a criminal network, and that Ybor City officials would have had to be in on the construction; Ybor City's 7th Avenue Historic Street is pictured in a file photo from November 28, 2016

'I interviewed a lot of people in the 1970s and '80s who would have been involved in bootlegging of '20s and '30s and they've all said the only people who feared the police were those who weren't involved in the rackets' he said. 'If you paid off the police, you were fine.' 

Mormino shared a story about one of his interview subjects named Sam, who said his father was an Italian bootlegger, who would receive a call once each month from the police telling him he had to come in and be arrested and pay his fines.

Once at the station, Sam said the police would ask his father what name he wanted to be arrested under 'this time,' and the next day the front page of the newspaper would read, 'Seven Italian bootleggers arrested,' as part of a ruse intended to appease the public.

In fact, Mormino said Sam also told him he used to deliver crates of bootlegged alcohol to shops and when the police were there, they would open the door and help him carry the boxes in, praising him for being such an enterprising young man. 

So, Mormino has determined, the tunnels probably weren't used for bootlegging. 

 The tunnel walls are constructed with several layers of brickwork

 The tunnels are a just large enough for an adult to crawl or crouch through

Instead, he said, it's far more likely they were used for 'white slavery related to bringing women across interstate lines for immoral purposes,' along with smuggling in Chinese laborers and Chinese-Cuban prostitutes.

Mormino said Ybor City has had a large Chinese-Cuban population dating back to 1886. 

'Chinese people were brought to Cuba after slavery ended in late 19th century to replace slaves and work in the sugar industry,' Mormino said.

Ybor City was founded in the 1880s by cigar tycoon Vicente Marinez-Ybor and became a hub of America's tobacco industry. Immigrants from Cuba, Spain and Italy rolled millions of cigars in the city's factories.

Mormino guessed that around the turn of the 20th century, city of Tampa officials may have been in on creating the tunnels which would have otherwise been a massive and expensive undertaking for a criminal enterprise.

Researchers used imaging techniques to map the direction and depth of some of the tunnels

Another image shows how one tunnel leads away from an industrial building

Mormino believes that local leaders may have extending the passages down to the port.

'Basically, corrupt politics likely allowed the criminal elements to use those tunnels as part of a vast, interconnected network,' he said.  

But, Mormino made sure to mention, that while it's fun to guess about what may have gone on in those hidden passageways all those years ago, anything anyone has come up with is just a guess. 

'I don't know if we'll ever know the truth, to be honest,' Mormino said. 'It's a rather elusive story now.

Dr. Lori Collins with USF’s Center for Digital Heritage said the tunnels are 'quite substantial.

Rodney Kite-Powell of the Tampa Bay History Center added that the tunnel found under the Blue Ribbon store might have been connected to the former Ybor Cigar Factory.

He said that could have been used to transport money, adding: 'It may have been a way to move cash around in the very early years... because it was kind of lawless.'

A report in 2020 by the University of South Florida said several historians believe the tunnels were in fact sewers.