"Char" for Borderland Beat
This article was translated and reposted from PROCESO
The operation, carried out in the southwest port of Manzanillo, seized 5.6 tons of cocaine that were being transported in three small boats.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2024
MORELIA, Mich. (apro).- The Mexican Navy, acting as Coast Guard, seized, in two different events, around 7.2 tons of presumed cocaine, as well as 1,100 liters of fuel, and 15 presumed suspects were arrested, informed the Ministry of the Navy (Semar).
In the first case, 126 packages with an approximate weight of 5.6 tons were seized, which, according to naval authorities, represents the largest seizure of the substance in a single event during the current administration.
The Semar informed that the operation, in which three smaller vessels were intercepted -where the fuel was also transported and where the detained persons were traveling-, was carried out southwest of the port of Manzanillo by personnel on board the vessel ARM Godínez (PO-132), with the support of a Panther helicopter.
In the other event, 32 packages containing approximately 1.6 tons of suspected cocaine, which was being transported aboard a small vessel, were seized southwest of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán.
This seizure was made with the support of the interceptor patrol vessel ARM “Regulus” (PI-1115), a Defender type vessel and a Panther type helicopter.
Both the detainees and the seized material were transported by sea to the corresponding docks, where they were handed over to the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (FGR), so that the ministerial authorities could complete the investigation.
Just last May 20, in Manzanillo, the Semar seized a shipment of approximately 1,618 kilograms of white powder with characteristics of cocaine, in 30 packages, as well as 11 cigarettes with dry grass with characteristics similar to marijuana and 1,150 liters of liquid with the characteristics of fuel, contained in 23 drums of 50 liters each.
The seizure was carried out by naval personnel during maritime and aerial surveillance operations involving a vessel, an aircraft and a helicopter of the Mexican Navy, approximately 135 nautical miles (250 kilometers) from Manzanillo, which resulted in the arrest of three people who were traveling aboard a smaller vessel.
Earlier, on April 24 of this year, the Semar announced the seizure of more than three tons of white powder with cocaine characteristics, at an approximate distance of 18.1 nautical miles (33.52 kilometers) off the coast of the port of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan.
The drug was seized when Mexican Navy personnel sighted black packages floating in the sea waters, so they proceeded to their recovery, which resulted in 66 packages containing inside them brick-shaped packages with the alleged illicit cargo.
The suspected drug was handed over to the competent authorities for the integration of the corresponding investigation folder.
On April 10, the maritime authority reported that, through the Fourteenth Naval Zone, based in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, attached to the Tenth Naval Region, located in Manzanillo, Colima, in two different actions, 1,969.86 kilograms of presumed cocaine hydrochloride were seized, and six suspects were arrested.
