A screen grab shows a navy vessel in a promotional video on a Mexican Secretary of the navy social media post. (Facebook)
(Tribune News Service) — The Mexican navy announced Monday it had seized almost 10 tons of concentrated liquid meth in more than 11,520 tequila bottles.
The cache was found Sunday at the Pacific coast seaport of Manzanillo while the glass bottles were awaiting export. All told, the bottles contained about 19,000 pounds of meth. The bottles were found after searching a shipping container carrying 960 cardboard boxes.
The navy did not say where the drugs were destined.
A photo of some of the bottles showed a brown liquid consistent with the color of “añejo” or aged tequila. It’s unclear what the labels on the bottles say. Other photos showed what appeared to be several hundred cardboard boxes.
The Mexican navy said it had already seized and destroyed about 114.3 tons of methamphetamine this year.
Smugglers take liquid meth to special processing facilities where water is extracted to return the drug to its crystal form.
The discovery in Mexico came days after Italian police found more than 2 tons of cocaine floating off the coast of Sicily.
In March, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said smuggling and production of cocaine and other drugs was on the rise around the world after a pandemic-related slowdown.
With News Wire Services
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