Mexican Army Seizes 2 Tons of Meth, Fentanyl near U.S.

Elements of the Mexican Army seized more than 2 tons of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and marijuana during separate security operations in the border states of Sonora and Baja California late last week. The busts yielded one arrest.

The first incident occurred in the II Military Region near Ensenada. Troops spotted a truck on a dirt road in an area known as La Calentura, next to a white Chevrolet truck. The occupants of the second vehicle fled as the soldiers approached, according to local reporting. Army personnel say they found 1,366 plastic containers containing 1,989.4 pounds of methamphetamine, 4.4 pounds of heroin, 17,052 fentanyl pills, and 1,060.7 pounds of marijuana for a total weight of 3,053 pounds. Also discovered were four portable radios/walkie talkies and 572 .22 caliber bullets.

In the second operation, Army personnel came upon a Freightliner semi-truck belonging to Transportes Vega at a military checkpoint in Querobabi, Sonora. The checkpoint is located on Highway 15, approximately 100 miles south of Nogales, Arizona. An inspection produced 631 packages of methamphetamine weighing 1,122 pounds, 14.3 pounds of cocaine, and 17.6 pounds of heroin. The total weight of the contraband came out to 1,153 pounds. The driver was handed over to investigators of the state attorney general’s office.

Breitbart News reports extensively on large seizures by Mexican authorities and U.S. counterparts along the California and Arizona border. Recently, Mexican Federal Police seized more than 550 pounds of methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl near San Luis, Arizona, after a short pursuit. The smugglers were able to flee without being arrested.

Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com