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Mexican army seizes 15 tons of crystal meth worth $4 billion.

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A

Al-ibn Kermit

Junior Member
http://m.apnews.mobi/ap/db_6776/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=c54p3Vnm

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) - Mexican troops have made a historic seizure of 15 tons of pure methamphetamine in the western state of Jalisco, an amount equivalent to half of all meth seizures worldwide in 2009.

The sheer scale of the bust announced late Wednesday in the western state of Jalisco drew expressions of amazement from meth experts. The haul could have supplied 13 million doses worth over $4 billion on U.S. streets.

"This could potentially put a huge dent in the supply chain in the U.S," said U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne. "When we're taking this much out of the supply chain, it's a huge deal."

Reporters were shown barrels of white and yellow powder that were found in a laboratory on a small ranch outside of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.

The Mexican army said troops received several anonymous tips and found the massive drug stash in the township of Tlajomulco de Zuniga, near the Jalisco state capital of Guadalajara. The army statement called the seizure "historic," implying it was the largest on record for the armed forces.

There were no people found on the ranch or arrests made, although it appeared 12 to 15 people worked there.

"Seizures of this size ... could mean one of two things," said Antonio Mazzitelli, the regional representative of the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime. "On one hand, it may be a product that hasn't been able to be sold, and like any business, when the market is depressed, stockpiles build up."

Or, he noted, "such large-scale production could suggest an expansion, an attempt by some Mexican groups, the most business-oriented I would say, to move into Latin American and Asian markets.

The previous biggest bust announced by the army came in June 2010, when soldiers found 3.1 metric tons (3.4 tons) of pure meth in three interconnected warehouses in the central state of Queretaro, along with hundreds of tons of precursor chemicals used to make meth. A giant underground lab was also found in Sinaloa state.

Those other seizures were believed to be linked to the powerful Sinaloa cartel's massive move into meth production. A senior U.S. law enforcement official in Mexico said Thursday this week's bust in Jalisco was "probably Sinaloa."

The official, who could not be named for security reasons, said Sinaloa may be moving into meth "to reduce its reliance on Colombian cocaine by flooding the market with meth."

The size of the Jalisco bust stunned Steve Preisler, an industrial chemist who wrote the book "Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture" and is sometimes called the father of modern meth-making.

"I have never seen quantity in that range," Preisler wrote. He also noted: "The amounts of precursors they were importing would produce multi-tons of product."

There has also been a dramatic increase in seizures of meth-making chemicals imported to Mexico from countries such as China. Such seizures indicate that Mexico may become a world production platform for methamphetamines, and that Mexican cartels may be dominating the trade.

In December alone, Mexican authorities seized 675 tons of a key precursor chemical, methylamine, that can yield its weight in uncut meth. All of the shipments were headed for Guatemala, where the Sinaloa cartel is also active. Officials in Guatemala, meanwhile, seized 7,847 barrels of precursors in 2011, equivalent to about 1,600 tons.

Few people use pure meth, and street cuts can be three or even five parts filler. A pound of meth can sell for about $15,000.

After a dip in 2007, the supply of methamphetamine in the United States has been growing, mainly due to its manufacture in Mexico, according to U.S. drug intelligence sources.

Between 2007 and 2009, seizures of methamphetamine by U.S. authorities along the Mexican border increased by 87 percent, according to the 2011 U.N. World Drug Report, the most recent statistics the U.N. has available.

Eighty percent of the meth coming into the U.S. is seized at the Mexican border, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center.
Click to expand...

Just read the whole thing.
 
T

tycoonheart

Member
Sketch of the cook

0318_cranston-e1269050096142.jpg
 
S

SUPREME1

Banned
Narcos aren't gonna like that one bit. I know they're used to losing loads at a time worth millions of dollars. But a load worth $4B?


Shiiiit.
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
ISTR a few separate incidents where US feds dismantled factories producing some of the precursor ingredients for LSD and individual busts effectively dried up the whole continent for a while.

It's remarkable to me that any drug would be being produced on such a centralized basis that a single bust could disrupt supply. You'd think cartels and dealers would have a more robust system. That's really the remarkable thing to me here.
 
C

CiSTM

Banned
BB people at full speed already. Didn't have any idea that the stuff was so valuable considering that it's not that hard to make.
 
Battersea Power Station

Battersea Power Station

Member
Hey guys, I don't know if you know this but there's a fictional TV show largely focused on the production and sale of meth. And this news story is about meth. How crazy is that?
 
K

Kunohara

Member
It's all viral marketing for the last season of Breaking Bad.

And yes I have read all the above posts already.

Edit: Jesus Christ really?
 
S

SUPREME1

Banned
Stumpokapow said:
ISTR a few separate incidents where US feds dismantled factories producing some of the precursor ingredients for LSD and individual busts effectively dried up the whole continent for a while.

It's remarkable to me that any drug would be being produced on such a centralized basis that a single bust could disrupt supply. You'd think cartels and dealers would have a more robust system. That's really the remarkable thing to me here.
Click to expand...


But we don't know if that's the case yet. This could be just one of several mega-labs.

But if you're right though, is it too late to buy stock in meth?
 
poppabk

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
It's not really worth $4 billion. That amount would sell for $4 billion if it made it to the US, still in Mexico it is not worth a fraction of that. The biggest cost to the cartel is probably the opportunity cost while they wait for more to be made.
 
D

dskillzhtown

keep your strippers out of my American football
poppabk said:
It's not really worth $4 billion. That amount would sell for $4 billion if it made it to the US, still in Mexico it is not worth a fraction of that. The biggest cost to the cartel is probably the opportunity cost while they wait for more to be made.
Click to expand...

Where do you think it was headed? US meth production is down, it moved to Mexico. When they started making it harder to buy mass quantities of over the Counter ingredients, the production in Mexico picked up the slack. I heard a DEA spokesman say that most of the meth in the US is made in Mexico.
 
B

BakedPigeon

Banned
poppabk said:
It's not really worth $4 billion. That amount would sell for $4 billion if it made it to the US, still in Mexico it is not worth a fraction of that. The biggest cost to the cartel is probably the opportunity cost while they wait for more to be made.
Click to expand...

If it would be valued at 4 billion on the street in the US then how is it not valued at 4 billion? I'm sure they had every intention in the world to sale it in the US.
 
K

KillGore

Member
This is probably a naive question but....what does the government do with the drugs they acquire from these people? If they properly destroy it (which I doubt), wouldn't that technically hurt the economy? $4 billion is a lot of money.
 
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