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Police find $206 mln in drug cash in Mexican house
MEXICO CITY, March 16 (Reuters) - Mexican police found $206 million of
drug-smuggling cash stuffed into suitcases, drawers and closets in a
mansion in an exclusive neighborhood of the capital, the attorney
general's office said on Friday.
Seven people were arrested at the house in the Lomas de Chapultepec
district, where police discovered wads of U.S. bank notes in bulging
cases and stacked to the ceiling in closets.
Mexican media said the haul was four times the amount of drug cash
confiscated in Mexico during all of last year.
The mountain of money was taken away in a van, guarded by two dozen
cars. Police also seized six Mercedes-Benz vehicles, firearms, around
200,000 euros and machinery used to make pills, the attorney general's
office said.
The raid was a success for Mexican President Felipe Calderon in the
crackdown on drug cartels that he launched after taking office last
December.
"This is the biggest seizure, not just in Mexico but perhaps in the
world," Calderon said of the cash find, which took place on Thursday
night and Friday morning.
"I don't want to think about how many young people this gang was
poisoning with its drugs, but I can promise them they won't do it any
more."
In January, Mexico extradited several drug kingpins to the United
States, including Osiel Cardenas, boss of the powerful Gulf cartel.
Police said the money belonged to a drug gang that smuggled chemicals
used to make methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant.
Calderon, a pro-business conservative, has sent thousands of troops to
drug crime hot spots including his home state of Michoacan, whose
mountain ranges are riddled with laboratories producing
methamphetamine for export to the United States.
The attorney general's office said the gang operated behind a
pharmaceuticals front company which imported tonnes of the chemical
pseudoephedrine, used in making methamphetamine, from India.
The raid was the result of an investigation opened in December when
police seized 19.5 tonnes of pseudoephedrine in Mexico's Lazaro
Cardenas port, the attorney general's office said.
Mexican methamphetamine producers are muscling in on the U.S. market
as police crack down on labs in the United States, according to a
recent report by the U.S. Justice Department's National Drug
Intelligence Center.
Following the U.S. crackdown, so-called superlabs that mass produce
the drug have relocated to Mexico, where precursor chemicals like
pseudoephedrine are more easily available.
Calderon discussed Mexico's drug smuggling problem with U.S. President
George W. Bush earlier this week in the Mexican city of Merida. Bush
told a news conference the United States had a responsibility to
reduce its drug consumption.
MEXICO CITY, March 16 (Reuters) - Mexican police found $206 million of
drug-smuggling cash stuffed into suitcases, drawers and closets in a
mansion in an exclusive neighborhood of the capital, the attorney
general's office said on Friday.
Seven people were arrested at the house in the Lomas de Chapultepec
district, where police discovered wads of U.S. bank notes in bulging
cases and stacked to the ceiling in closets.
Mexican media said the haul was four times the amount of drug cash
confiscated in Mexico during all of last year.
The mountain of money was taken away in a van, guarded by two dozen
cars. Police also seized six Mercedes-Benz vehicles, firearms, around
200,000 euros and machinery used to make pills, the attorney general's
office said.
The raid was a success for Mexican President Felipe Calderon in the
crackdown on drug cartels that he launched after taking office last
December.
"This is the biggest seizure, not just in Mexico but perhaps in the
world," Calderon said of the cash find, which took place on Thursday
night and Friday morning.
"I don't want to think about how many young people this gang was
poisoning with its drugs, but I can promise them they won't do it any
more."
In January, Mexico extradited several drug kingpins to the United
States, including Osiel Cardenas, boss of the powerful Gulf cartel.
Police said the money belonged to a drug gang that smuggled chemicals
used to make methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant.
Calderon, a pro-business conservative, has sent thousands of troops to
drug crime hot spots including his home state of Michoacan, whose
mountain ranges are riddled with laboratories producing
methamphetamine for export to the United States.
The attorney general's office said the gang operated behind a
pharmaceuticals front company which imported tonnes of the chemical
pseudoephedrine, used in making methamphetamine, from India.
The raid was the result of an investigation opened in December when
police seized 19.5 tonnes of pseudoephedrine in Mexico's Lazaro
Cardenas port, the attorney general's office said.
Mexican methamphetamine producers are muscling in on the U.S. market
as police crack down on labs in the United States, according to a
recent report by the U.S. Justice Department's National Drug
Intelligence Center.
Following the U.S. crackdown, so-called superlabs that mass produce
the drug have relocated to Mexico, where precursor chemicals like
pseudoephedrine are more easily available.
Calderon discussed Mexico's drug smuggling problem with U.S. President
George W. Bush earlier this week in the Mexican city of Merida. Bush
told a news conference the United States had a responsibility to
reduce its drug consumption.
