| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | February 2009 
Mexico Navy Seizes 7 Tons of Cocaine
 UK Telegraph
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 |  | The drug bust was the biggest in Mexico since 23 tons of cocaine were seized at the Pacific port facility of Manzanillo in October 2007.
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Mexico and the United States intercepted a ship in international waters in the Pacific Ocean carrying nearly seven tons of cocaine and arrested five crew members, the Mexican president, Felipe Calderón said on Sunday.
Mr Calderón did not provide further details of the seizure during a speech in southwestern Chilpancingo.
Secretary of the Navy Mariano Francisco Saynez said the ship was intercepted with the aid of the US Coast Guard.
Mr Saynez said a Mexican Navy patrol boat would arrive at Puerto de Salina Cruz in (the southeastern state of) Oaxaca, carrying around seven tonnes of confiscated cocaine and five crew members.
He said the five men were all suspected Mexican drug traffickers who were "arrested aboard the Polar I fishing vessel in international waters of the Pacific Ocean the past weekend".
He said the high-sea interception was "co-ordinated with a ship of the United States Coast Guard, who turned over the detainees and the drug shipment in international waters".
Mr Saynez did not say under which flag the fishing vessel was sailing.
The drug bust was the biggest in Mexico since 23 tons of cocaine were seized at the Pacific port facility of Manzanillo in October 2007.
Since Calderón took office in December 2006 and vowed to stem drug trafficking, more than 70 tons of cocaine have been seized by authorities across the country, according to official data. |
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