Army located six drug laboratories in Sinaloa and Michoacán; destroyed 10 hectares of poppy in Chihuahua

The Army located 6 clandestine laboratories where synthetic drugs were produced, three in the municipality of Culiacán, Sinaloa and three more in Buenavista Tomatlán, Michoacán, where together they secured 3,950 liters of liquid substances and 1,38kg of unidentified chemicals. In addition, in collaboration with the Mexican Air Force, they located and destroyed 10 hectares of poppy fields in Chihuahua.

Most of the material was in laboratories located in Sinaloa, where the military insured three thousand 820 liters of liquid substances and one thousand 18 kilograms of unknown chemicals. A smaller amount was in Michoacán, where the armed forces seized 150 liters and 20 kilograms of unidentified chemicals and liquids.

During the operation in Culiacán, 325 kilograms of caustic soda, 133 kilograms of a methamphetamine-like component, 3 kilograms of a methamphetamine-like component, 7 reactors for organic synthesis and 1 metal centrifuge were also found. While in Buenavista Tomatlán, other items were found such as 12 containers with different chemicals, equipment for processing components, three motorcycles and a car.

According to data from the Ministry of National Defense, the two states in which authorities have identified the highest number of clandestine laboratories are Sinaloa and Michoacán, in which 54 and 19 units have been secured respectively, followed by Durango with 13, Baja California with 9, Guerrero with 5, Sonora with 4, Queretaro and Guanajuato with 2, Morelos, Puebla, Hidalgo, State of Mexico and Colima with 1. These clandestine sites mainly produce heroin and methamphetamine, whose insurance has grown by 128% in the last three years.

The army, together with the Mexican Air Force, conducted an aerial reconnaissance in the Mesa de Cobre, municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua as part of the search for enervantes plantations that is part of Operation Sierra Madre. With this tracing, they were able to identify a poppy plantation, with an area of 10 hectares, in which there is a 50% advance in manual and incineration activities for its total destruction.

Chihuahua is one of the main entities in which poppies are grown, together with Sinaloa, Durango and Guerrero. From this crop, raw opium is obtained, which goes through a process with which morphine and heroin are generated. It should be noted that recently President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was questioned about the possibility of legalizing in the future the cultivation of poppy for the production of morphine, used for pharmaceutical purposes to relieve pain, he said:

“There are many distortions. For example, synthetic drugs come under cover with requests from laboratories that are supposed to use them for medical purposes, but that is not the case, synthetic drugs that go to laboratories have been seized; they are even routes supposedly to deliver these substances in different parts, in different regions of the country, and there are no no laboratory, they do not exist, they are private homes”.

In this regard, President Mexico assured that for the time being work will continue to eliminate the planting of this illegal plant. As far as AMLO's administration, a total of 307,504 poppy plantations have been eradicated, occupying a total area of 41,675 hectares, according to information submitted by Luis Cresencio Sandoval González, Secretary of National Defense, at the last morning conference in March. These illegal crops

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