The military announced Monday that it had discovered and destroyed four hectares of coca leaf fields located near a cocaine manufacturing lab in Guerrero, about 150 kilometers north of Acapulco.

According to military officials, it marked the first time that operations for growing and manufacturing cocaine have been found in Guerrero.

“We’ve never found the cultivation of these crops in the state,” said Lt. Col. Enrique Benítez Campoy. “For that reason, it’s relevant. It’s the first that’s ever been found.”

Authorities said the plants had been harvested and processed at least four months ago. The lab contained abandoned items for manufacturing cocaine, leading them to believe that the crops had been processed there.

The military said that the carefully organized plantings were hidden in the hills of the rural community of El Porvenir y El Limón.  The site also had many hundreds of meters of irrigation pipes that led to a nearby stream.

Federal authorities said they believed an organized crime group in the Tierra Caliente region was behind the site, but did not specify which.

Benítez said that each hectare of the coca leaves would have yielded five to seven kilograms of cocaine. He estimated the total value of the final product at approximately US $12,500.

Another cocaine plantation was discovered in 2014 in Chiapas.

Source: Milenio (sp)