Thread: 134 TONS OF MARIJUNA SEIZED - $340 MILLION, UPDATED

Authorities to announce major pot bust in Tijuana

By Hieu Tran Phan
Monday, October 18, 2010 at 2:13 p.m.

Authorities in Tijuana plan to announce Tuesday afternoon that they have seized 100 tons of marijuana. That's the biggest amount confiscated in years.

A news conference is set to begin soon on the incident. We hope to soon provide an update with details such as the street value of the marijuana, which drug gang was carrying it and whether Mexican law enforcement is ratcheting up anti-drug operations.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... n-tijuana/

Mexican Authorities Seize 105 Tons of Marijuana

Updated: Monday, 18 Oct 2010, 6:42 PM MDT
Published : Monday, 18 Oct 2010, 6:42 PM MDT

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) - Mexican security forces are announcing the seizure of 105 tons of marijuana.

Army Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mujica says the pot was seized in 10,000 packages in the border city of Tijuana. He says 11 suspects have been arrested.

Duarte Mujica spoke Monday at a news conference in the city across the border from San Diego, Calif.

The bust far surpasses any marijuana seizure in Mexico of the past few years.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpps/news/m ... b_10171842

Major pot bust in Tijuana nets 115 tons

By The Associated Press ,
Monday, October 18, 2010 at 7:38 p.m.

TIJUANA — Mexican security forces seized 115 tons of U.S.-bound marijuana in the border city of Tijuana on Monday, by far the biggest pot bust 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 Gen. 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, about $340 million.

Duarte said authorities were still counting and weighing the packages and the amount could increase. He said the drugs would be incinerated immediately after the weighing and counting is 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.

Police arrested 11 people who were traveling in the convoy and called the army and state police for reinforcements, Duarte said.

The detainees led the security forces to three different Tijuana neighborhoods where the drugs were found stored in tractor trailers and houses, he said.

Duarte said local criminal gangs were gathering the drugs to smuggle into the United States. 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 produced in Mexico.

Cannabis production in Mexico increased 35 percent from the previous year, according to the U.S. 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 bust dwarfed marijuana seizures of recent years. Major pot seizures this year in Tijuana and other parts of the country have amounted to about a dozen tons each.

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 U.S. report. It said Mexico eradicated 35,000 acres of cannabis in the first 11 months of last year, compared to 46,000 acres in 2008.

The report said the decline comes as Mexican security forces focus more on hard drugs like methamphetamines - but also as resources are increasingly deployed to confront drug cartel violence.

Upon taking office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon deployed tens of thousands of troops and federal police to fight drug cartels in their strongholds. An unprecedented 28,000 people have been killed in drug gang violence since.

The Tijuana bust came a little over a week after Calderon visited the border city and called it a success in his drug war.

Violence peaked in Tijuana in 2008 amid a showdown between two crime bosses - Fernando "The Engineer" Sanchez Arellano and Teodoro "El Teo" Garcia Simental, a renegade lieutenant who rose through the ranks by dissolving bodies in vats of lye.

Garcia was arrested last January. While killings have continued, the most gruesome displays of cartel violence - decapitations, hangings and daylight shootouts - subsided.

Last week, in the wake of Calderon's visit, several bodies were found beheaded and hanging from bridges in Tijuana, leading to fears that the cartels were resuming brutal tactics to send a message that the government is not in control.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... n-tijuana/

Mexico's largest pot bust likely hit Sinaloa gang

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer,
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 2:39 p.m.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's largest-ever seizure of marijuana packaged for sale is even bigger than the original estimate of 105 tons and probably belonged to the powerful Sinaloa cartel, authorities said Tuesday.

The government so far had counted 15,000 packages - 5,000 more than first announced after the seizure during early-morning raids Monday in the border city of Tijuana, said Alejandro Poire, President Felipe Calderon's security spokesman.

Authorities were still weighing the haul Tuesday to determine just how much bigger it is than originally thought, he said.

"There are indications that it belongs to the organization of the Pacific," said Poire, using another common name for the Sinaloa cartel headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Soldiers and police grabbed the U.S.-bound marijuana in pre-dawn raids in three neighborhoods after police arrested 11 people following a shootout, army Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mujica said at a news conference Monday.

He said the drugs had an estimated street value of 4.2 billion pesos, about $340 million.

The drugs were wrapped in different colors and labeled with apparently coded phrases and pictures that included Homer Simpson.

The bust occurred after 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.

The Sinaloa cartel has long eyed Tijuana's lucrative land and sea routes leading into California.

Territorial warring both inside the local Arrellano Felix cartel and with other gangs result in much of the border city's bloodshed.

Violence peaked in Tijuana in 2008 amid a showdown between two factions headed by Fernando "The Engineer" Sanchez Arellano and Teodoro "El Teo" Garcia Simental, a renegade lieutenant who rose through the ranks by dissolving bodies in vats of lye. The violence has dropped off since Garcia's January arrest.

Calderon recently praised the new calm in Tijuana as a success story in Mexico's drug war. He discounted speculation that the peace stems from one cartel taking over.

"The truth is that in the last two years, the government has made important hits on the criminal structures," he told The Associated Press in an interview.
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Associated Press Writer Mariana Martinez in Tijuana, Mexico, contributed to this report.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... aloa-gang/

Record 134 tons of pot seized in Tijuana will be incinerated

October 20, 2010 | 7:28 am

The record 134 tons of marijuana seized in Tijuana this week is to be incinerated Wednesday afternoon at an army base in Tijuana.

Officials said a preliminary investigation showed that the marijuana, broken into smaller shipments, was transported to Tijuana by the Sinaloa Cartel, also known as the Pacific Cartel.

“There are indications that suggest that it belongs to the organization of the Pacific,â€

Record 134 tons of pot seized in Tijuana will be incinerated

Isn't that what the original customers were going to do with it ?