EL PASO, Teas (Border Report) — Mexican authorities on Friday reported seizing nearly 8,000 gallons of liquid meth and chemicals used in the manufacturing of synthetic drugs.
The seizure took place inside a building in Culiacan, Sinaloa after a judge issued a search warrant to investigators with the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (FGR), the agency said.
Culiacan is known as one of the strongholds of the Sinaloa cartel and last October was the site of a battle in which cartel gunmen surrounded a Mexican army unit and forced it to release Ovidio Guzman, one of the sons of jailed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
However, the state of Sinaloa has one of Mexico’s top commercial ports (Topolobampo) for trade with Asia, a region from where all of the cartels procure their precursor chemicals for meth, fentanyl and other opioids that are killing thousands of people in the United States.
Agents who raided the clandestine warehouse also found condensers, centrifuges, hydroelectric pumps, freezers and tools to mix chemicals, the FGR said.
The seized chemicals include 1,118 gallons of benzyl chloride; 304 gallons of benzaldehyde; 160 gallons of monomethylamine; 111 gallons of liquid methamphetamine; 49 gallons of toluene; and 33 gallons of hydrochloric acid. Another 5,300 gallons of substances yet to be identified were also found.
The Mexican Attorney General’s Office did not immediately attribute ownership of the drugs and chemicals to any particular group. The investigation is ongoing, according to FGR.
