Army Finds Synthetic Drug Lab in Mexico
 EFE
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November 14, 2009
 |  | Since taking office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon has deployed more than 45,000 soldiers and 20,000 federal police officers across Mexico in a bid to stem the wave of violence unleashed by drug traffickers. |  | | |
Mexico City – Army troops found an illegal laboratory used to manufacture synthetic drugs and seized a large quantity of crystal meth in Mexico, but no arrests were made, the Defense Secretariat said.
Soldiers conducted land and air surveillance of the area around De Los Duarte, a town in Sinaloa state, in response to an anonymous tip, locating the drug lab on Wednesday, the secretariat said.
Army troops seized 1,650 kilos of granular crystal methamphetamine, 470 liters of liquid crystal amphetamine, 52 barrels of another liquid and equipment used to produce synthetic drugs.
The operation also yielded 54 gas tanks, six boilers, two refrigerators, a generator, a washing machine, eight camp sites, 20 tents and three ammunition clips for rifles, the Defense Secretariat said.
Investigators are looking for the owners of the property where the illegal lab was located.
The northwestern state of Sinaloa is home to the drug cartel led by Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman, who was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and pulled off a Hollywood-style jailbreak when he escaped from the Puente Grande maximum-security prison in the western state of Jalisco on Jan. 19, 2001.
The Sinaloa organization, sometimes referred to by officials as the Pacific cartel, is the oldest drug cartel in Mexico and Guzman, considered extremely violent, is one of the most-wanted criminals in Mexico and the United States, where the Drug Enforcement Administration has offered a reward of $5 million for him.
Sinaloa, the birthplace of many of Mexico’s drug lords, is currently the scene of a bloody turf war between Guzman and the Beltran Leyva brothers, his former lieutenants in the Sinaloa cartel.
Since taking office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon has deployed more than 45,000 soldiers and 20,000 federal police officers across Mexico in a bid to stem the wave of violence unleashed by drug traffickers.
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News Around the Republic of Mexico | November 2009 
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