Mexican authorities seized 105-tons of marijuana in Tijuana
Latin America: Week in Review, Mexico

Mexico seizes 105-Tons Of Marijuana In Tijuana; Huge Bust As Prop 19 Looms In U.S.

October 19, 2010 By Staff

Mexican authorities seized 105-tons of marijuana in Tijuana

Today in Latin America

Top Story Mexican authorities seized a huge amount of marijuana Monday in the border city of Tijuana, one of the largest drug busts in years for Mexico.

Soldiers and police officers seized 105-tons of marijuana during a series of pre-dawn raids in three Tijuana neighborhoods. Before the raids a shootout occured between security forces and gunmen in a convoy of vehicles, where 11 people were arrested.

“The seizure of these drugs is without precedent in the country,” General Alfonso Duarte told reporters, according to the BBC. The bags are still being counted and the exact figure of the drugs confiscated could increase, Duarte added.

Along with the 10,000 packages of marijuana, authorities also seized trailers, trucks and two large fire arms.

The Mexican street value of the seized marijuana is suspected to be around $335 million dollars, with the price doubling or tripling in the United States.

The seizure comes amidst a growing debate in Mexico over the legalization of marijuana in the U.S. state of California and in Mexico itself. Mexican President Felipe Calderón opposes the Proposition 19 measure up for vote in two weeks, while other influential Mexicans – including former President Vicente Fox – are advocating legalization.

Calderón has called for a debate on the subject.

Tijuana, along with other Mexican cities bordering the U.S., has taken much of the brunt of the conflict between the Mexican government and the country’s drug cartels. Since Calderón launched a crackdown in 2006, deploying 50,000 troops, there have been some 28,000 deaths related to the violence.

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4 Comments

cubana1960 says:

Legalize and tax marijuana–just like alcohol and cigarettes. Let people choose their poison and use our money for more worthwhile endeavors and to chase real criminals.

Larry from Florida says:

“Common Sense” I was a freshman at the Ohio State University in 1970 when I first read Thomas Paynes Common Sense.

I was not the usual 18 year old freshman common on the campus. I was attending on the GI bill because I was a combat veteran who had served two tours in Viet Nam. I was at that time a very right wing supporter of the war who had voted for Richard Nixon. All that was about to change.

It wasn’t an abrupt change, but a gradual one. I had heard that my ex wife was smoking pot. I was horrified. I thought that this was the first step, then would come heroin. This was the message. It was a gateway drug. Then came Kent state and my exposure to intelligence. Not the kind I had been exposed to serving in miliary intelligence in my sevice, but real intelligence you get from higher education.

Perhaps the most important quote from Thomas Payne is ” a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom.” This is the defense heard most today from the uninformed. The prohibitionists. It is simply a custom that prohibition is not wrong that makes it seem right. Nothing could be further from the truth. Prohibition has never worked and it never will work. Going all the way back to Adam and Eve. It simply never has worked.

There is a documentery coming out on the prohibition alcohol. I hope everbody watches it.

End the war on drugs. Join Leap.

[…] seizes 105-Tons Of Marijuana In Tijuana; Huge Bust As Prop 19 Looms In U.S. Mexico seizes 105-Tons Of Marijuana In Tijuana; Huge Bust As Prop 19 Looms In U.S. | Latin America N… Posted by Staff on Oct 19th Mexican authorities seized a huge amount of marijuana Monday in the […]

[…] that the tunnel was the work of a major Mexican drug cartel, especially as it comes two weeks after Mexican authorities discovered a record 134 tons of marijuana in an industrial area near Tijuana. Authorities are still unsure if there is a connection between […]

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