Mexican armed forces said Monday they had dismantled a clandestine meth “mega-laboratory” in northern Sonora state, marking the largest drug laboratory busted under the current administration.
The navy said it had seized 4.13 metric tons (91,073 lb) of meth and 1.27 tons of precursor chemicals used to make the synthetic drug.
The site counted 72 laboratory reactors, it added, five times more than the 13 discovered at what was previously considered the country’s largest clandestine lab, which had also been discovered in Sonora.
The U.S. has been pushing Mexico to crack down on drug trafficking, particularly fentanyl, even as leaked documents revealed the Mexican army revised up the number of drug lab raids it said it had conducted under the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is in his final year of office.
Mexico has meanwhile been pushing for the United States to take a firmer stance on the illicit trafficking of firearms from the United States to drug cartels across the border.
© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023.