Authorities find 32 kg of fentanyl nestled between between nopal leaves in Sonora

Mexican authorities person arrested a 29-year-old antheral successful the bluish borderline authorities of Sonora for transporting much than a 4th cardinal fentanyl pills hidden successful a shipment of nopales, oregon cactus leaves, officials said Wednesday.

In summation to 30 achromatic packages containing astir 275,000 fentanyl pills, authorities said they recovered 2 achromatic packages of fentanyl powder. The combined value of the pills and pulverization was 32 kilograms, they reported.

En Sonora fuerzas federales detuvieron a un hombre que transportaba 32 kilos de fentanilo ocultos en un cargamento de nopales en un tráiler.

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According to the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), the thoroughfare worth of the drugs is 131.3 cardinal pesos (US $6.44 million).

The fishy was arrested astatine a conveyance inspection station successful the municipality of Huatabampo, Sonora, connected the national road heading northbound betwixt Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and Navojoa, Sonora — astir 600 kilometers southbound of Nogales, Sonora, astatine the Mexico-U.S. border.

The suspect’s achromatic tractor-trailer was transporting boxes of nopales, wrong which the pills and pulverization were hidden, authorities said. The Spanish connection nopales is besides utilized successful English, particularly successful culinary and cultivation contexts, to notation to the edible pads of a prickly pear cactus.

The seizure came amid heightened tensions betwixt Mexico and the United States implicit fentanyl trafficking. The synthetic opioid, a large concern for the cartels based successful Sinaloa and Jalisco, is often smuggled into the U.S. hidden successful buses, parcel shipments and adjacent drones.

A property merchandise noted that the apprehension occurred “within the model of the National Security Strategy and arsenic a effect of coordinated work” among the pursuing agencies: the SSPC, the national prosecutor’s Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC), National Defense (Sedena), the Navy Ministry (Semar) and the National Guard (GN).

The apprehension coincided with the caller implementation of 25% tariffs connected Mexican exports by U.S. President Donald Trump, aimed astatine pressuring Mexico to combat cause trafficking, particularly fentanyl.

“With these actions, the institutions of the Security Cabinet reaffirm their committedness to enactment successful a coordinated mode to physique bid and forestall drugs from reaching young people,” the SSPC stated successful a property release.

Earlier this week, Mexican authorities reported that, since launching Operación Frontera Norte (Operation Northern Border) connected Feb. 5, astir 18,690 kilograms (18.7 tonnes) of amerciable drugs — including astir 56 kilograms of fentanyl — had been seized and much than 1,000 suspected cause traffickers arrested.

Also wrong the past 2 weeks, the Mexican Navy reported seizing immoderate 2 tonnes of suspected cocaine from a vessel disconnected the Pacific seashore of Chiapas and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum approved the transportation of 29 apical cause lords to look proceedings successful the United States.

With reports from El Universal, Associated Press and López-Dóriga Digital