Police in Mexico City seized a cargo of 1.6 tons of cocaine from Colombia – and destined for Los Angeles – within the largest bust the Mexican capital has ever seen.
The enormous operation pulled over two trailer vehicles and a automobile escorting them alongside a freeway main away from the Mexican capital on Tuesday. The medication had been apparently set to be smuggled throughout the Mexican border into the United States earlier than being taken to Los Angeles.
A spokesperson for the Mexican Secretariat of Public Security, named as Omar Garcia Harfuch, mentioned: “We are talking about the largest seizure of cocaine in Mexico City by far.”
The police found the medication stashed in hidden compartments within the trailers.
FiscaliaCDMX/Zenger
According to the preliminary investigation, the cargo got here from Colombia and had arrived within the port city of Puerto Escondido, within the state of Oaxaca on Mexico’s Pacific coast.
The unlawful medication had been then transported by street to the Mexican capital of Mexico City the place the suspects had deliberate to distribute some within the neighborhood of Tepito within the coronary heart of the capital.
It was understood to be step one on the street to trafficking cocaine throughout the U.S. border to L.A.
Police arrested 4 suspects who come from the state of Durango. Three of them have prison information.
Harfuch mentioned the detainees belong to prison organizations based mostly in Durango and the neighboring state of Sinaloa. He added: “This weakens the criminals who generate violence in our Mexico City.”
FiscaliaCDMX/Zenger
This is the second main operation in opposition to drug cartels to happen in Mexico City to date this month.
Two weeks in the past, a heavy police deployment within the south of town resulted within the arrest of 14 suspects and the discharge of two kidnapping victims in addition to the seizure of weapons and medicines.
Of these arrested, 4 have been launched. The others stay jailed on suspicion of belonging to the highly effective Sinaloa Cartel.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, headquartered within the Austrian capital Vienna, mentioned in its World Drug Report 2021 that roughly “275 million people used drugs worldwide in the last year.”
They additionally mentioned that “between 2010-2019 the number of people using drugs increased by 22 percent” and that “the resilience of drug markets during the pandemic has demonstrated once again traffickers’ ability to adapt quickly to changed environments and circumstances.”
This story was offered to Newsweek by Zenger News.