Drug bust: 105 Tons of Marijuana

[spherojon]

Mexican authorities say they seized some 105 tons of marijuana early Monday, in a mammoth bust that began with police noticing a suspicious convoy on the roads of Tijuana.

After armed men in a convoy escorting a marijuana-laden truck exchanged fire with Mexican security officers — and were eventually subdued — they told the authorities where the rest of the drugs were stashed, according to The Los Angeles Times. At least 11 people have been arrested.

The marijuana was bound for the United States, according to Mexican Army Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mujica. After reportedly being gathered from several locations across Mexico, the pot was sitting in shipping containers in Tijuana when authorities interceded.

At a news conference, Duarte said the shipment's street value in Mexico was an estimated 4.2 billion pesos — or around $340 million. That figure would have risen even higher if the drugs were successfully brought across the border.

Photos of the marijuana packages suggest the smugglers may have been using an elaborate system to organize the drug shipment, with labels and symbols written on color-coded wrappers to identify specific distributors. One logo was based on the TV character Homer Simpson, according to the AP.

The final size of the bust may increase, Duarte said, as officials continued to count and weigh the packages. He said the drugs would be incinerated immediately after the weighing and counting is completed.

The bust comes 10 days after Mexican President Felipe Calderon called Tijuana a success story in his country's struggle with drug smugglers.

At 105 tons, the seizure nearly matches the 115 tons of marijuana security forces had seized so far this year in the state of Baja California, which includes Tijuana.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...-tijuana-raids


Holy Cow!

[MtnGoat]

Police got lucky down there or the drug trafficers got lazy or over zealous
by the first line of the story.

began with police noticing a suspicious convoy on the roads of Tijuana.

Great fine tho

[ZonieDiver]

Or the street price was dropping and they wanted to cut supply to help bring it up...

[CombatMuffin]

People down here were talking about how moving that much dope undetected must be very hard....

So, the uneducated were talking about how it was probable the authorities had received their "payment" to turn the other way... and someone must have given them away or betrayed the operation. If that's so, then violence is bound to escalate in that area.... All speculation.

Wouldn't be surprised if they simply unpacked it for the media to take pictures, and then the police simply "hands it" to the consumers themselves. I'd like to see the pictures of them burning it.

[spherojon]

Originally Posted by CombatMuffin

I'd like to see the pictures of them burning it.

Well here's a video.
http://video.ap.org/?f=AP&pid=MOvI8G...7irJUQIcMwiHpT

[CombatMuffin]

Originally Posted by spherojon

Well here's a video.
http://video.ap.org/?f=AP&pid=MOvI8G...7irJUQIcMwiHpT

Well I'll be damned, seems like they did burn it after all. Lets just hope the people guarding it were not against the wind on that one. I still remain suspicious, but the video provides strong proof against my arguments.