What border crisis? Largest domestic meth bust in DEA history made - worth $18.5 million

Courtesy: DEA

What border crisis? Industrial grade drug lab seized by Mexican authorities

Posted by: | |Categories Around The World, Featured, Homeland Security
Share:

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – Police and soldiers in Mexico announced that they discovered a lab in Mexico City that was producing industrial-grade methamphetamine and fentanyl on October 25th. 

Felipe de Jesus Gallo, from the Federal Attorney General’s Office, said that the lab had vats used to chemically prepare 11,000 pounds of raw material at a time.  These vats were so large that Gallo said they stood two stories tall. 

Gallo said:

“In the Attorney General’s Office, we have no record of any seizure of equipment of this size before.”

The lab was first discovered last week behind a storefront that was advertising cleaning products.  Behind the seemingly legitimate storefront was a warehouse that contained drums and 265-gallon tanks. 

Gallo said those tanks held precursor chemicals that would be used in making the illicit narcotics.  

Seizure of this methamphetamine and synthetic opioid fentanyl factory was part of a larger drug investigation which Mexican authorities codenamed “Blue.” It was part of coordinated raids that hit throughout Mexico City, Durango, and the state of Mexico.

An engineer was arrested in another area of Mexico City who allegedly built and managed labs for an organized drug organization. Authorities announced that during the arrest, they were able to seize a drum with a suspected precursor of fentanyl inside. They also seized directions on how to process the chemical.

Gallo stated that they were able to seize roughly 290 kilograms of methamphetamine during the raids that were found to have a “high level of purity” from a lab in Sonora. He alleged that some of the drugs seized from here were slated to be shipped into the United States. The driving force behind the entire operation seemingly is the Sinaloa drug cartel.

In tracing how this group was obtaining the chemicals needed to produce the illicit narcotics in such a sophisticated scheme, the Mexican Marines were able to develop intelligence that the precursors were being imported from China through a company in Hong Kong. 

Authorities were able to trace a shipment of containers that had been sent from a Japanese Port to the Baja California seaport of Ensenada.

The Mexican Marines announced that they were able to seize the containers and also found precursor chemicals inside of them. The three different chemicals found seemingly could be used to create fentanyl in what they said would be a simple process.

President Donald Trump, when running in 2016, made the claim that there were massive amounts of drugs that were being produced and introduced to the United States from Mexico. Many democratic leaders decried this statement as being nothing more than racist.  

On March 13, 2019, President Trump spoke of the number of drugs that were coming into our country from Mexico. 

He said:

“Tens of thousands of innocent Americans are killed by the vast quantities of deadly, poisonous drugs that are smuggled across our nation’s very porous borders. 

“They’re a lot less porous with us there, but they’re coming in bigger numbers…But we’re having tremendous amounts of meth, cocaine, heroin, and ultra-lethal fentanyl.  That’s literally ultra-lethal.  It gets stronger.”

There has been an increase in overdose deaths throughout the nation, specifically from heroin and fentanyl. One of the hardest-hit areas is Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco. 

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, of the 1,070 bodies examined between January 1, 2020, and August 31, 2020, nearly half, 468, died from a drug overdose.

This figure represents a monthly average of 58.9 drug overdose deaths in 2020 — so far.  In all of 2019, the Office of the Medical Examiner reported a monthly average of 36.7 deaths, with 441 total.  2018 saw even fewer, with a monthly average of 21.6 deaths and 259 total, and 2017 had a monthly average of 18.5 drug overdose deaths with 222 total.

San Francisco is on a path this year to average approximately two drug overdose deaths per day.

Do you want to join our private family of first responders and supporters?  Get unprecedented access to some of the most powerful stories that the media refuses to show you.  Proceeds get reinvested into having active, retired and wounded officers, their families and supporters tell more of these stories.  Click to check it out.

LET Unity

What border crisis? Largest domestic meth bust in DEA history made – worth $18.5 million

LOS ANGELES, CA – A pyramid of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin standing 10 feet tall, with an estimated street value of $18.5 million. That’s the haul from two recent drug-trafficking investigations in Southern California’s Inland Empire, and it represents the largest domestic meth bust in Drug Enforcement Agency history.

DEA Acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea made the announcement Oct. 14 as he stood in front of the mountain of illicit drugs, noting that agents had seized 893 pounds of cocaine, 2,224 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and 13 pounds of heroin. He said:

“These two seizures are more than enough to provide a dose of meth for every man, woman, and child in the United States and Mexico.”

Some of the drugs were passed between cars in broad daylight, concealed in duffle bags, in public places such as the Sam’s Club parking lot in Moreno Valley. Lisa Serrano, a shopper told CBSLA:

“Wow. I don’t know how they hide that.”

Another shopper, Tanya Rivas, told CBSLA:

“I can’t bear to think about families coming here and shopping and knowing this is going on.”

Narcotics detectives with the Fontana Police Department spotted the exchange in the Sam’s Club parking lot. The department said its DEA task force had been on the trail of the massive drug ring since June and noted that the drug ring has ties to the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel.

In June, the DEA’s Los Angeles Field Division, Southwest Border Group 2, began investigating a Sinaloa Cartel-linked drug trafficking organization that was involved in the transportation and delivery of large quantities of crystal methamphetamine and cocaine.

As a result of the investigation, agents located a Southern California-based narcotics courier/stash house manager, along with multiple locations and vehicles associated with the courier and the drug trafficking organization.

Earlier this month, investigators conducted surveillance on a drug courier who they believed managed a stash house in an undisclosed neighborhood in Moreno Valley.

On Oct. 2, DEA agents and Fontana PD investigators established surveillance on the courier’s residence, where they observed the target courier and an associate. The agents and detectives observed the couriers load two duffle bags into a vehicle and leave the location, meeting up with a third associate in the parking lot of the Moreno Valley Sam’s Club.  

The first two drug couriers were observed unloading and delivering the two duffle bags to the third associate and all three were then detained in the parking lot. They were questioned and later released.

After the encounter in the Sam’s Club parking lot, the officers obtained search warrants for two suspected stash houses, one in Moreno Valley and the other in Perris. Between the two homes, detectives seized 25 duffle bags stuffed with 2,224 pounds of meth, 406 kilograms of cocaine, and six kilograms of heroin.

 

 

Want to make sure you never miss a story from Law Enforcement Today?  With so much “stuff” happening in the world on social media, it’s easy for things to get lost.

Make sure you click “following” and then click “see first” so you don’t miss a thing!  (See image below.)  Thanks for being a part of the LET family!

Facebook Follow First

Share:
Submit a Correction
About The Author

I am a proud husband to a wife who works in education and the father to two wonderful children. My first focus is on my family and spending time with them, my second is on my career. I am a current law enforcement lieutenant and have been an officer for over twenty years. Chris Elliot is a pen name for safety reasons.

Related Posts