On Friday, a Navy operation in Mexico seized 8.3 tons of drugs, a record amount of drugs seized in the country in a maritime operation.

The value of the confiscated amounts to 2.099 billion pesos (134.5 million euros), the Navy said in a statement, without specifying the type of drugs.

The confiscation was made southwest of the city of Lazaro Cardenas, in the state of Michoacán, on Mexico’s west coast. During the operation, the Navy captured six boats – five with outboard motors and one semi-submersible about 15 meters long – as well as 23 people. 

The largest drug seizure in Mexico’s history, 23 tons of Colombian cocaine, took place in November 2007, while a similar operation by the country’s Navy last month seized seven tons of drugs.

For decades, Mexico has been a hub for drug smuggling to North America, an activity that a number of cartels have battled to control.

The state of Michoacán, off which the seizure took place, is thus the theater uninterrupted of conflicts between crime gangs, among which the powerful Nea Genia cartel of Jalisco, AMNA reports.

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