Mexican Navy shuts down 8 clandestine drug labs in Sinaloa

May 8, 2024

Two people in hazmat suits and with shovels removing industrial sized jugs of chemicals from a synthetic drug lab in Sinaloa — Personnel remove chemicals in a Sinaloa synthetic drug lab that was making methamphetamine. (SEMAR)

The navy announced Tuesday that it shut down eight clandestine drug labs in the northern state of Sinaloa in recent days.

The Ministry of the Navy (SEMAR) said in a statement that “naval personnel in coordination with the Federal Attorney General’s Office located and neutralized eight clandestine laboratories” in Sinaloa where cartels were making tonnes of illegal synthetic drugs.

five people in hazmat suits removing chemicals from a drug lab in Sinaloa — The Sinaloa Cartel is the likely group behind this clandestine lab. It is the predominant cartel in Sinaloa, and one of its most lucrative criminal enterprises is manufacturing and smuggling synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl to the United States. (SEMAR)

Authorities found at least two of the clandestine labs in the Culiacán municipality, the state capital. The others were found in other parts of Sinaloa.

“In a first event, seven labs were located and dismantled in the villages of La Pluma de la Gallina, El Bledal and Carricitos and in the vicinity of the José López Portillo dam,” SEMAR said.

The statement also said the navy found at the labs approximately 6 tonnes of methamphetamine, 12,750 liters of “essential chemicals,” 2 tonnes of precursor chemicals, “three reactors of different capacities” and a range of other materials for methamphetamine manufacturing.

“In a second action, a clandestine laboratory was destroyed in the village of El Tecomate in the municipality of Culiacán,” SEMAR said.

Officials said that they found approximately 10 kilograms of methamphetamine, 6,050 liters of “essential chemicals,” 1 tonne of precursor chemicals and equipment to make synthetic drugs at that lab.

According to SEMAR, the eight labs’ destruction represented “a loss of millions of dollars” in synthetic drug sales for organized crime.

a simple concrete building in Sinaloa with its roof on fire, surrounded by garbage, dismantled for being a synthetic drug lab — The majority of the clandestine labs the navy recently found in Sinaloa were in villages and other rural areas, although one drug lab the navy dismantled was in the city limits of Culiacán. (SEMAR)

The Sinaloa Cartel is the dominant criminal organization and drug producer and trafficker in Sinaloa. The cartel formerly headed by imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán smuggles large quantities of drugs, including the synthetic drugs methamphetamine and fentanyl, into the United States.

Anne Milgram, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, has said that the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) pose “the greatest criminal threat the United States has ever faced” due to the large quantities of narcotics they smuggle into the U.S.

Mexico News Daily