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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2007 
Mexican Drug Cash Seizure Recalculated
 E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Press
| | This is like law enforcement hitting the ultimate jackpot. But luck had nothing to do with this windfall. |
The world's largest drug cash seizure just got bigger. In a Thursday news release, the Mexican federal Attorney General's office said a new count of the Mexican pesos seized in a luxury home in Mexico City found 17.3 million pesos — not the 157,500 originally reported — a difference worth about $1.5 million. There was no explanation for the discrepancy.
The new figure brought the total amount of cash seized in the home to more than $207 million.
On Monday, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Karen Tandy said in a statement that it was the largest drug-cash seizure "the world has ever seen."
Officials said the main suspect, a Chinese man with Mexican citizenship, was also wanted by Interpol on drug charges. Prosecutors say Zhenli Ye Gon ran one of the hemisphere's largest networks for trafficking pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamines.
He allegedly used a front company, Unimed Pharm Chem de Mexico SA, to import from India and Germany large quantities of the ingredients needed to make methamphetamines.
Federal agents seized the cash, eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a machine to make pills during a raid last week in a neighborhood of walled compounds that is home to ambassadors and business magnates. Seven people were arrested.
The money was hidden in walls, closets and suitcases.
Since the U.S. cracked down on the mass sale of cold medicines used to make methamphetamines, Mexico has become one of the world's largest producers of the synthetic drug. |
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