Mexican Army Finds Over 2 Tons of Pot in Cemetery

Published July 29, 2012
EFE

Army troops found 2.2 tons of marijuana in a cemetery in Los Villa Nueva, a community in northeastern Mexico, the Defense Secretariat said.

Soldiers found the drugs Thursday in the community outside Camargo, a city in Tamaulipas state, the secretariat said.

Officials did not say whether any arrests were made or which drug cartel the marijuana belonged to.

Tamaulipas has been rocked by a wave of drug-related violence unleashed by gangs battling for control of smuggling routes into the United States.

The army is carrying out "Operation Northeast" in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and San Luis Potosi states in an effort to weaken the drug cartels that operate in the region.

The Gulf drug cartel and Los Zetas, a band of army special forces deserters turned hired guns and drug traffickers, are blamed for the violence.

Media reports say the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have formed an alliance to fight Los Zetas.

Los Zetas started out as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, but the two criminal organizations later had a falling out.

After several years on the payroll of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas, considered Mexico's most violent criminal organization, went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.

President Felipe Calderon declared war on Mexico's drug cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.

Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.

Mexican Army Finds Over 2 Tons of Pot in Cemetery | Fox News Latino