Skip to content

Mexican army seizes tonnes of crystal meth

Vanessa Buschschlüter
BBC News
Reuters Two Mexican army personnel wearing white protective suits, full face visors and heavy-duty black gloves stand in front of large vats at a site which was used as a meth laboratory in the community of Higueras de Abuya. One of the duo is holding a spade.Reuters
Soldiers wore protective suits as they inspected the meth labs

The Mexican army says it has seized more than four tonnes of methamphetamine in raids conducted in the violence-wracked state of Sinaloa over the weekend.

Soldiers raided warehouses and drug labs in Higueras de Abuya, a village about 75km (45 miles) south of the state capital, Culiacán.

A spokesman for the army said the seizure of such a large amount of the synthetic drug - which in some forms is known by its street name crystal meth - would constitute a hard blow to whichever criminal gang was behind the labs.

Mexico's security minister has deployed thousands of troops to the northern state of Sinaloa an effort to reign in the drug cartels that are active there.

Reuters Meth crystals are lying on a table inside one of the warehouses raided by soldiers on the weekend in Sinaloa state.Reuters
Inside the labs and warehouses, soldiers found tonnes of methamphetamine

The seizure of the powerful and highly addictive stimulant comes just two weeks after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum managed to convince US President Donald Trump to hold off imposing a 25% duty on Mexican imports to the US for a month.

One of the reasons Trump had cited for imposing the tariffs was the flow of drugs from Mexico to the US.

He also accused the Mexican government of having "an intolerable alliance" with drug trafficking organisations.

While the deployment of some extra troops to Sinaloa predates the spat between the US and Mexico over tariffs, the seizure of the methamphetamine stash will be welcome news to the Mexican government, which wants to demonstrate to the US that it is playing its part in trying to combat drug cartels.

Hamlet Toledo, deputy operative chief of the army general staff, told reporters that in addition to the four tonnes of methamphetamine seized this weekend, the army had also secured another large meth stash last week, bringing the total to more than five tonnes.

General Toledo said that one of the warehouses where the drugs were found appeared to have housed between 15 and 20 people, who are thought to have fled before the soldiers arrived.

The soldiers who located the labs had become suspicious when they spotted vats of precursor chemicals - needed to make the drug - outside the properties.