Mexico Trucker Online

HUATULCO, Mexico — Mexico’s navy seized a homemade submarine carrying a drug shipment off the Pacific Coast on Wednesday and arrested its four-man crew.

Similar vessels carrying cocaine have been discovered off Colombia and Central America, but navy spokesman Capt. Benjamin Mar said the seizure is a first for Mexico.

The 30-foot (10-meter) makeshift submarine was detected heading north about 200 miles (322 kilometers) off the southern state of Oaxaca, Mar said.

The green-topped, arrowhead-shaped vessel was intercepted when it surfaced hours later, and the crew was taken into custody without resistance.

Read the rest of this entry »

MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities announced Wednesday the seizure of more than 11 tons of cocaine in the western port city of Manzanillo, and said it was one of the nation’s biggest drug busts ever.

During a routine inspection, federal police and marines discovered a cargo container filled with packets of the drug aboard the Hong Kong-flagged ship Esmeralda, which departed from Buenaventura, Colombia, the federal attorney general’s office said in a statement.

Authorities were still weighing the drugs but the statement said their weight had already surpassed 11 tons, making Tuesday’s seizure “one of the greatest quantities of cocaine that has been decommissioned in the history of our country,” the statement said.

On Oct. 5, authorities said they seized about 10 tons of cocaine following a shootout in the northern city of Tampico.

President Felipe Calderon has made the fight on drugs and organized crime a cornerstone of his administration, and the U.S. unveiled a proposal earlier this month to give Mexico $1.4 billion to fight narcotics-related crime.