Mexican authorities have seized over 7.5 tons of cocaine found aboard two speed boats traveling off the Pacific coast en route to the United States, Mexico's Navy said.

The boats were seized between Sunday night and early Monday morning near the southern state of Oaxaca, in an operation conducted in cooperation with the United States, Guatemala and Belize, the ministry said.

The two vessels were carrying a total of 320 packages of cocaine, weighing in at 7550.95 kilograms.

Since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and vowed to stem drug trafficking, more than 80 tonnes of cocaine have been seized by authorities across the country, according to official data.

In July last year officials seized a submarine carrying nearly six tons of cocaine also off the Oaxaca coast. Mexico's record seizure of cocaine came in 2007 when authorities uncovered 23 tons of the drug in a cargo ship originating from Colombia.

Mexican authorities have continued to find drugs in increasingly creative smuggling operations -- last month the navy found a container ship carrying 30 cocaine-filled frozen sharks. Almost a tonne of the drug was seized inside the stuffed sharks off the southeastern Yucatan state.

Calderon has deployed more than 36,000 troops and police in a bid to crack down on the country's powerful and well-armed drug smuggling cartels.

More than 10,000 people have died in Mexico in suspected drug violence since Calderon launched the bid two and a half years ago.







loaded with International Space Station parts out of the shuttle. AP Photo/NASA

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)