Mexico's army Thursday said its troops have seized 15 tons of pure methamphetamine in the country's western state of Jalisco.
The Mexican army said its soldiers found the large cache of the synthetic drug at a ranch in the township Tlajomulco de Zuniga, on the outskirts of the Jalisco state capital of Guadalajara, on Wednesday, following a tip-off from a local resident.
Army spokesman Gen Gilberto Hernandez Andreu said the ranch had been used as a laboratory to manufacture the drug, while indicating no arrests were made in the raid that led to the seizure of the synthetic drug.
"It's an historic seizure: more than 15 tonnes of methamphetamine, five kilos of crystal, and around seven tonnes of precursor chemicals," he said, adding that equipments used to manufacture the drug were also seized in the operation.
Experts say the methamphetamine seizure in Mexico on Wednesday amounts to almost half of all methamphetamine seizures worldwide in 2009. It is estimated that the seized meth cache is worth more than $4 billion if sold in the United States.
Mexican officials say the manufacture of methamphetamine has increased in the country in recent years. Authorities blame heavy demand for the drug in the United States for its increased production in Mexico, from where it is smuggled to the US by drug cartels.
Mexico is currently struggling to contain the violence unleashed by rival drug cartels, mainly in the northern states, as they fight each other to for the control of lucrative smuggling routes to the United States.
The Mexican government says that more than 47,500 people have died in drug-related violence in the country since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug gangs after taking office in December 2006.
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