The Naval Ministry (Semar) on Monday announced that Navy personnel and officials from the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) located and neutralized a clandestine drug lab in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico.
In a press bulletin, the Navy said it destroyed the lab, the drugs and the chemicals which, taken together, comprised the second biggest drug bust during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office Dec. 1, 2018.
Elementos de @SEMAR_mx y Agentes de la @FGRMexico Desmantelan un narcolaboratorio en #ElDorado, #Sinaloa, siendo el segundo más grande que desmantela la #Marina en 2024, con una afectación superior a los Mil 500 MDP al crimen organizado. (🎥) @Reporte_Indigo @CapitalMexico pic.twitter.com/2wI8wcs3A4
— Guillermo Espinosa (@Guiesga) July 23, 2024
The authorities confiscated 3,920 kilograms of material presumed to be methamphetamine along with 28,600 liquid liters and 2,250 kgs of precursor chemicals. Also seized were 19 500-liter storage drums, seven centrifuges, 124 plastic tubs of various sizes, 81 30-kg tanks of LP gas, five pumps, four generators, 28 current amplifiers and 23 fans, among other materials.
The drug lab was discovered near the village of El Dorado, about 198 km south of the Eighth Naval Zone based in Topolobampo, Sinaloa, during a routine Navy-FGR patrol. The authorities estimate the street value of the material confiscated exceeded 1.5 billion pesos (US $82.7 million).
The biggest drug bust during López Obrador’s term occurred in February of this year when the Navy uncovered a drug lab in the mountains of Sonora with over 35 tonnes of methamphetamines (crystal meth) ready for sale. Chemicals that could be used to produce an additional 41 tonnes of illegal drugs were also confiscated from the same site.
Combined, the potential street value of everything seized was more than US $600 million, according to Semar, which calculated that the operation had prevented roughly 1 billion fentanyl pills from reaching the United States, Canada, Australia, China, Spain, Japan and several European countries.
The El Dorado bust is the second significant blow handed by Semar to drug cartels this month.
On July 6, in the port of Manzanillo, Colima, Navy personnel teamed up with the Coast Guard to confiscate acetic acid, a corrosive organic acid that can be used in the manufacture of phenyl-2-propanone, methamphetamine and amphetamine.
Nearly 90 tonnes of acetic acid, a strong, flammable irritant with a vinegar-like odor, was found inside polyethylene industrial tanks — also known as cubitainers or cubitanques — designed to hold corrosive materials. The cubitainers were hidden inside four shipping containers.
In May, the Navy also reported the confiscation and destruction of materials seized from eight clandestine drug labs in the state of Sonora.
The number of clandestine drug labs discovered throughout Mexico has grown from 58 in 2018 to 948 in 2023, according to a report published by the newspaper El País. Over 2,000 have been dismantled during President López Obrador’s term.
With reports from La Jornada and Milenio
