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Mexico seizes 678 kilos of cocaine after the militarization of ports

2020-08-12T02:13:03.946Z


The drug was transported on a Japanese flag ship from Colombia to Manzanillo Military protected chemical material used to make synthetic drugs, in the port of Manzanillo, in the State of Colima, in 2011. The customs authorities and the Mexican Navy have reported this Tuesday that they have seized in the port of Manzanillo, State of Colima (located in the west of the country), 678 kilograms of cocaine that were transported in a Japanese flag ship from Colombia and that was...


Military protected chemical material used to make synthetic drugs, in the port of Manzanillo, in the State of Colima, in 2011.

The customs authorities and the Mexican Navy have reported this Tuesday that they have seized in the port of Manzanillo, State of Colima (located in the west of the country), 678 kilograms of cocaine that were transported in a Japanese flag ship from Colombia and that was destined for the port of Yokohama, in Japan. This seizure occurs almost a month after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador unveiled a new strategy of his Government to combat drug trafficking: "We are going to clean the ports and customs in the country," he said after passing to the forces armed control and surveillance of these infrastructures.

The Mexican authorities have described the seizure of the drug, which was secured on August 10 during an inspection carried out by personnel from the General Administration of Customs and a Naval unit, as a "sure hit to the financial structure of crime". container unloaded on the Japanese flag ship. In it, officials and the military found 11 sacks containing the drug stored in 575 brick-shaped packages. "Samples of the material were taken and with a team to arrest illegal substances, cocaine was found as a result," Customs authorities have reported in a statement. The drug has been handed over to the Prosecutor's Office for a judicial process to begin, although no arrests have been reported or it has been attributed to which criminal group the shipment belonged.

Between January and July in Mexico, 3,793 kilograms of cocaine have been seized, according to data from the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena). In the same period, 97 tons of marijuana and six tons of methamphetamine have also been seized by the authorities. The López Obrador government maintains a strategy to combat drug trafficking in a close alliance with the military, who have been given new functions such as control of ports and customs, a decision that led to the resignation of its Secretary of Communications and Transportation , Javier Jiménez Espriú. The secretary said in his farewell letter that he disagreed with the decision to transfer to the Navy "the eminently civil functions" of the administration of the country's ports.

Manzanillo is the main Mexican port on the Pacific coast and an important commercial bridge with Asian markets: more than 33.5 million tons of products were moved in June, although it has also been pointed out by the authorities as one of the points key to drug trafficking. Colima is one of the most violent states in Mexico, being an important drug crossing where criminal groups fight for control of the territory. The State registered the highest homicide rate in the country in 2018, with 81 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SNSP).

It was in Manzanillo where President López Obrador announced on July 17 his new strategy to combat drug trafficking, by passing control of ports to the military. The president has yielded in the 19 months that he has been in command of the Executive broad powers to the Army, including the creation of the controversial National Guard and the distribution of real estate and logistics businesses. The military will carry out police work until 2024. This is a strategy with which López Obrador, once a critic of the militarization of police work, hopes to reduce violence in the country, which last year registered almost 35,000 murders, the highest number since records began in 1997.



Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-08-12

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