Mexico makes historic methamphetamine seizure

"MEXICO CITY - Mexican troops have made an historic seizure of 15 tons of pure methamphetamine in the western state of Jalisco, the Mexican army said in a statement released late Wednesday.

The find was more than four times the size of a major seizure last summer of 3.4 tons and more than twice the total amount of the drug seized in Mexico in 2009, according to United Nations statistics.

No one could say late Wednesday what the largest seizure was previously in Mexico.

Soldiers discovered the huge cache in the town of Tlajomulco de Zuniga, a suburb of Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara.............
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/09/10359157-mexico-makes-historic-methamphetamine-seizure

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eluniversal.com.mx%2Fnotas%2F828922.html

For those unfamiliar with the names of towns in the area, Tlajomulco is where the airport is located.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2012/02/mexican-army-finds-15-tons-of-pure.html

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Tlajomulco de zuniga, is not by the airport. try google maps

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=Aeropuerto+Tlajomulco+de+Zu%C3%B1iga,+Tlajomulco+de+Zu%C3%B1iga,+Mexico&hl=en&ie=UTF8&cid=5482283968940044189

According to the above Google Map, it is the address for the airport.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Tlajomulco+de+Zuniga,+Jalisco,+Mexico&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=20.473335,-103.447266&spn=0.436137,0.823975&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=23.681596,52.734375&hnear=Tlajomulco+de+Zu%C3%B1iga,+Jalisco,+Mexico&t=m&z=10

And then the above map shows a different location. Flip a coin?

http://maps.google.com.mx/maps?q=tlajomulco+de+zuniga&ie=UTF8&client=safari&oe=UTF-8&hnear=Tlajomulco+de+Z%C3%BA%C3%B1iga,+Jalisco&gl=mx&t=m&z=14

Wish this would show up as a pic but it doesn't.

Tlajomulco is really BIG!

El narcolaboratorio se encuentra ubicado en el rancho ''Los Villarreal'', en la población de Buena Vista, en Tlajomulco de Zúñiga.

Buena Vista is on the highway from Joco that takes you to Plaza Outlet. Don't let it be confused with the little subdivision near Chapala.

http://www.mapas-de-mexico.com/jalisco-state-mexico/jalisco-state-mexico-map-c2.shtml

Far left on the map north of Lake Chapala. Follow the red road from Joco towards Guadalajara and you'll see Buena Vista on the map pretty much half way between Joco & Guadalajara.

From your description, I guess this is the area we are talking about:

[img][/img]

There goes the price for the druggies in the States all f*cked up on that shit.

CheenaGringo wrote:From your description, I guess this is the area we are talking about:

[img][/img]

Thank you, yes!!! Buena Vista to the left.

An article from the NEW YORK TIMES on this bust:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/world/americas/mexico-seizes-15-tons-of-methamphetamine.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Their article values the seizure at $4 Billion! Even if this is a typical over evaluation, we are talking huge money here. One quote from the article is quite interesting:
"But while the authorities proudly showed off the seizure to local reporters, the sheer size of the find set off alarm among experts and officials from the United States and the United Nations. It was a sign, they said, of just how organized, efficient at manufacturing and brazen Mexico’s traffickers had become even after expanded efforts to dismantle their industry.

“The big thing it shows is the sheer capacity that these superlabs have in Mexico,” said Rusty Payne, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration. “When we see one lab with the capability to produce such a mass tonnage of meth, it begs a question: What else is out there?”

The other thing I found interesting about this bust is that these guys feel so secure that they concentrate this much stuff in one location.

MC:

The fact that they can concentrate that much product in one location may be brought on by the difference in the manner in which they accumulate the necessary chemicals. NOB, most meth seems to be produced in smaller operations since the chemicals are not available in large quantities and the smaller operations are easier to hide. In the case of Mexico, the chemicals are arriving in huge quantities from Asia in shipping containers. Sure there have been some major seizures as of late but the reality is that huge amounts are still avoiding detection. While I don't have any hard figures, I would have to guess that each shipping container contains enough chemical to produce large/huge amounts of meth. They had to be a large number of big trucks bringing this chemical onto this ranch.

So far I haven't seen any photos of the actual production equipment but they have released the following:
"In the same farm were confiscated 15 reactors for the production of drugs, 12 tanks of gas, oxygen cylinders and thermostats. The value of drugs and precursors was estimated at 58 thousand 144 million pesos.

In the Rancho Villa Real, a distance of 15 minutes, five kilometers from the Guadalajara-Morelia highway, on the banks of Buena Vista town, found the lab, which gave off a chemical smell.

This is an area of ​​no more than one hectare, with a perimeter fence three meters high, with two gates in the front and one in the back. The building is guarded by armored vehicles and soldiers."

So it doesn't look like the physical size of this "superlab" was all that noticeable.

One article attempting to put the value of this seizure into perspective with the following:
The value
The insured by the Army equivalent to:

29 stadiums like Omnilife of two billion pesos.

4.5 times more than the debt of Jalisco (14 thousand million pesos).

2 times the fortune of Emilio Azcarraga, Televisa owns at the site 512 of the Forbes list.

4.5 times the fortune of "El Chapo", which is a billion dollars, according to Forbes.

theres no business like drug business. you get to be listed in forbes.