Huge drug seizure in Mexico
Source: Agencies |
October 20, 2010, Wednesday
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MEXICAN security forces seized at least 105 tons of United States-bound marijuana in the border city of °?Tijuana on Monday, by far the biggest °?discovery of the drug in the country in recent years.
Soldiers and police grabbed the drugs in pre-dawn raids in three neighborhoods after police arrested 11 people following a shootout, army general Alfonso Duarte Mujica said at a news conference.
The marijuana was found wrapped in 10,000 packages, which were displayed to journalists by soldiers in masks. Duarte said the drug had an estimated street value in Mexico of 4.2 billion pesos (US$340 million).
Duarte said authorities were still counting and weighing the packages and the amount could increase. He said the drugs - wrapped in different colors and labeled with apparently coded phrases and pictures - would be incinerated after the weighing and counting was completed.
The bust began when Tijuana °?municipal police on patrol came under fire from gunmen in a convoy of vehicles, Duarte said. One police officer and one suspect were injured.
Tijuana police arrested 11 people who were traveling in the convoy and called the army and state police for reinforcements, Duarte said.
He said the detainees led the security forces to three different neighborhoods in the city. The drugs were found stored in tractor trailers and houses.
Duarte said local criminal gangs were gathering the drugs to smuggle into the US. He did not identify any of the gangs or say where the marijuana originated.
Although Mexican drug cartels smuggle marijuana from South °?America, the drug is increasingly being produced in Mexico itself.
Cannabis production in the °?populous Latin °?American nation i°?ncreased 35 percent year on year to?12,000 hectares in 2009, °?according to the?US?State Department's 2010 °?International °?Narcotics Control report.
The report attributed?the increase to drug cartel efforts to "diminish reliance on foreign?suppliers."
The Tijuana capture dwarfed °?marijuana seizures of recent years. Major pot seizures this year in Tijuana and other parts of the country have amounted to approximately a dozen tons each.
Before this seizure, soldiers in Baja California state, where Tijuana is located, had confiscated a total of 115 tons of marijuana this year.
The seizure comes as overall marijuana confiscation and crop eradication has dropped in Mexico.
Security forces seized 1,385 tons of marijuana in 2009, down from a yearly average of 2,000 tons in °?previous years, according to the US State Department report. It said Mexico eradicated 14,000 hectares of cannabis in the first 11 months of last year, compared to 18,660 hectares in 2008.
The report said the decline comes as Mexican security forces focus more on hard drugs like methamphetamines.
Soldiers and police grabbed the drugs in pre-dawn raids in three neighborhoods after police arrested 11 people following a shootout, army general Alfonso Duarte Mujica said at a news conference.
The marijuana was found wrapped in 10,000 packages, which were displayed to journalists by soldiers in masks. Duarte said the drug had an estimated street value in Mexico of 4.2 billion pesos (US$340 million).
Duarte said authorities were still counting and weighing the packages and the amount could increase. He said the drugs - wrapped in different colors and labeled with apparently coded phrases and pictures - would be incinerated after the weighing and counting was completed.
The bust began when Tijuana °?municipal police on patrol came under fire from gunmen in a convoy of vehicles, Duarte said. One police officer and one suspect were injured.
Tijuana police arrested 11 people who were traveling in the convoy and called the army and state police for reinforcements, Duarte said.
He said the detainees led the security forces to three different neighborhoods in the city. The drugs were found stored in tractor trailers and houses.
Duarte said local criminal gangs were gathering the drugs to smuggle into the US. He did not identify any of the gangs or say where the marijuana originated.
Although Mexican drug cartels smuggle marijuana from South °?America, the drug is increasingly being produced in Mexico itself.
Cannabis production in the °?populous Latin °?American nation i°?ncreased 35 percent year on year to?12,000 hectares in 2009, °?according to the?US?State Department's 2010 °?International °?Narcotics Control report.
The report attributed?the increase to drug cartel efforts to "diminish reliance on foreign?suppliers."
The Tijuana capture dwarfed °?marijuana seizures of recent years. Major pot seizures this year in Tijuana and other parts of the country have amounted to approximately a dozen tons each.
Before this seizure, soldiers in Baja California state, where Tijuana is located, had confiscated a total of 115 tons of marijuana this year.
The seizure comes as overall marijuana confiscation and crop eradication has dropped in Mexico.
Security forces seized 1,385 tons of marijuana in 2009, down from a yearly average of 2,000 tons in °?previous years, according to the US State Department report. It said Mexico eradicated 14,000 hectares of cannabis in the first 11 months of last year, compared to 18,660 hectares in 2008.
The report said the decline comes as Mexican security forces focus more on hard drugs like methamphetamines.
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