Twelve narco-camps located along the Madera-Largo Maderal-Nuevo Casas Grandes corridor in the state of Chihuahua have been dismantled by soldiers in the past six months, the army said.

Brigadier-General Miguel Ángel Hernández Martínez said 8.5 tonnes of marijuana, 40 firearms, three fragmentation grenades, 75 magazines, 4,218 rounds of ammunition, three bulletproof vests, and 23 vehicles were seized. Eighteen people were arrested and three were killed during the arrests. Each camp consisted of between nine and 40 people.

The raid on drug trafficking camps is part of Governor Javier Corral’s Safe Chihuahua campaign in which military, federal, state and local authorities are working together to fight organized crime in the region. 

Hernández explained that as part of the coordinated strategy to build peace in the state, a series of missions have been carried out, among which was the installation of an operations base with 30 soldiers in the area with the highest concentration of narco-camps. 

Many of the areas soldiers patrol are remote and require crossing “areas where there are not always roads, they go as far as vehicles can, and then they travel strenuous days on foot, often having to spend the night where they arrive. This has allowed us to inhibit some actions by criminals,” Hernández said.

Source: Milenio (sp)