ALVAREZ6
10-26-2010, 11:44 PM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/oct/20/confiscated-mexican-marijuana-goes-smoke/
Confiscated Mexican marijuana goes up in smoke
TIJUANA — Nearly 296,000 pounds of marijuana went up in thick dark clouds of smoke Wednesday in Tijuana, three days after municipal police chanced upon a caravan of trucks that led them to the historic seizure.
Bugles blared, drums rolled and the Mexican flag was unfurled as armed soldiers, civilian officials and others gathered to witness the lighting of the massive pile.
The seizure has brought international attention and is being showcased as a success story in President Felipe Calderón’s hard-fought battle against drug-trafficking groups in Mexico. The 15,000 wrapped bundles of pot represent the largest-ever seizure of marijuana already packaged for sale and distribution to date in Mexico, federal authorities said.
“Citizens should be proud of their authorities and of their armed forces,” Gen. Alfonso Duarte Múgica, commander of Baja California’s Second Military Zone, said as huge orange flames leaped into the air at a military base. “We are going to continue obtaining these kinds of results against organized crime.”
According to Mexican federal authorities, the quantity represents more than 52 million individual doses of pot. Officials have offered widely varying estimates of the street value in the United States and Mexico. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said that quantity would yield more than $103 million in U.S. street value, based on the low-end pricing for Mexican marijuana.
Peter Reuter of the University of Maryland said the usual method for valuing a seizure is the cost it imposes on smugglers — currently about $400 a pound. But, he added, “the retail price is massively higher,” closer to $2,500 a pound.
Mexico’s military authorities initially estimated a smaller seizure of 230,000 pounds in 10,000 packages. They revised those figures Wednesday to the almost 296,000 pounds wrapped in 15,000 packages.
Authorities in Baja California have revealed little about the origin of the packages, only saying that they appear to have been brought up from southern Mexico in small quantities by land, sea and air. Duarte said that the investigation is ongoing.
Alejandro Poiré, Mexico’s security spokesman, said Tuesday in Mexico City that “there are indications” suggesting that the drugs belonged to the “Organization of the Pacific,” a term for the Sinaloa drug-trafficking organization.
Duarte said the marijuana had been accumulating in clandestine storage facilities for some time, as increased vigilance has made it difficult for traffickers to move it through Tijuana and smuggle it to the United States.
The discovery of the marijuana occurred late Sunday, as municipal police on patrol near Tijuana’s central bus station happened on a convoy that opened fire. Calling for reinforcements, the officers found three truckloads of marijuana and were led to a lot in another neighborhood where they found more than 176,000 pounds stashed in six trailers. They later found smaller quantities hidden inside two residences in western Tijuana and Rosarito Beach.
Eleven suspects remained in custody Wednesday in connection with the seizure. Police sources have identified one of them as Jorge Alberto Avelar Ruiz, whose brother, Jose Avelar Ruiz, president of Tijuana’s Conventions and Tourism Commitee.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Avelar said his brother was detained Monday by state authorities when he went to report the theft of one of his company’s vehicles.
Jose Avelar said his brother supports his family by operating a legitimate business, “a working person known in the Tijuana community ... who became the victim of a car theft that was used by criminals. This has placed him in a painful and deplorable situation.”
The burning comes less than two weeks before California voters go to the polls to vote on Proposition 19, a ballot measure that would legalize marijuana possession within certain limits. Rosarito Beach Mayor Hugo Torres, among the witnesses to the burning, expressed concern about the initiative’s potential effects in Baja California.
“If it’s legalized in California and not legalized here, border areas are going to be strongly affected and many lives will be at risk without necessity,” he said. “It will be very difficult to persuade police and the military to keep making an effort and risking their lives to ensure that drugs don’t reach a market where there are no controls.”
:depressed
So, so stupid. Just picture it...bunch of military tough guys gathering and attempting to be bad ass, standing around a massive, burning pile of lettuce, essentially.. :lol Compared to what the law thinks it's controlling, marijuana is nothing even close to this nonsense, probably more beneficial to our current society than negative. ====> Lettuce
Not only are they wasting a bunch of time and money on a war to burn "lettuce"....they are essentially burning away HUGE amounts of money. Can't wait til the governments of the world look back in a few years and see just how fucking stupid their actions were, like prohibition, especially considering marijuana is nowhere remotely close to being as destructive as alcohol.
:bang
Truly pathetic.
Go after the real destructive drugs you enormous, gaping vaginas.
Confiscated Mexican marijuana goes up in smoke
TIJUANA — Nearly 296,000 pounds of marijuana went up in thick dark clouds of smoke Wednesday in Tijuana, three days after municipal police chanced upon a caravan of trucks that led them to the historic seizure.
Bugles blared, drums rolled and the Mexican flag was unfurled as armed soldiers, civilian officials and others gathered to witness the lighting of the massive pile.
The seizure has brought international attention and is being showcased as a success story in President Felipe Calderón’s hard-fought battle against drug-trafficking groups in Mexico. The 15,000 wrapped bundles of pot represent the largest-ever seizure of marijuana already packaged for sale and distribution to date in Mexico, federal authorities said.
“Citizens should be proud of their authorities and of their armed forces,” Gen. Alfonso Duarte Múgica, commander of Baja California’s Second Military Zone, said as huge orange flames leaped into the air at a military base. “We are going to continue obtaining these kinds of results against organized crime.”
According to Mexican federal authorities, the quantity represents more than 52 million individual doses of pot. Officials have offered widely varying estimates of the street value in the United States and Mexico. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said that quantity would yield more than $103 million in U.S. street value, based on the low-end pricing for Mexican marijuana.
Peter Reuter of the University of Maryland said the usual method for valuing a seizure is the cost it imposes on smugglers — currently about $400 a pound. But, he added, “the retail price is massively higher,” closer to $2,500 a pound.
Mexico’s military authorities initially estimated a smaller seizure of 230,000 pounds in 10,000 packages. They revised those figures Wednesday to the almost 296,000 pounds wrapped in 15,000 packages.
Authorities in Baja California have revealed little about the origin of the packages, only saying that they appear to have been brought up from southern Mexico in small quantities by land, sea and air. Duarte said that the investigation is ongoing.
Alejandro Poiré, Mexico’s security spokesman, said Tuesday in Mexico City that “there are indications” suggesting that the drugs belonged to the “Organization of the Pacific,” a term for the Sinaloa drug-trafficking organization.
Duarte said the marijuana had been accumulating in clandestine storage facilities for some time, as increased vigilance has made it difficult for traffickers to move it through Tijuana and smuggle it to the United States.
The discovery of the marijuana occurred late Sunday, as municipal police on patrol near Tijuana’s central bus station happened on a convoy that opened fire. Calling for reinforcements, the officers found three truckloads of marijuana and were led to a lot in another neighborhood where they found more than 176,000 pounds stashed in six trailers. They later found smaller quantities hidden inside two residences in western Tijuana and Rosarito Beach.
Eleven suspects remained in custody Wednesday in connection with the seizure. Police sources have identified one of them as Jorge Alberto Avelar Ruiz, whose brother, Jose Avelar Ruiz, president of Tijuana’s Conventions and Tourism Commitee.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Avelar said his brother was detained Monday by state authorities when he went to report the theft of one of his company’s vehicles.
Jose Avelar said his brother supports his family by operating a legitimate business, “a working person known in the Tijuana community ... who became the victim of a car theft that was used by criminals. This has placed him in a painful and deplorable situation.”
The burning comes less than two weeks before California voters go to the polls to vote on Proposition 19, a ballot measure that would legalize marijuana possession within certain limits. Rosarito Beach Mayor Hugo Torres, among the witnesses to the burning, expressed concern about the initiative’s potential effects in Baja California.
“If it’s legalized in California and not legalized here, border areas are going to be strongly affected and many lives will be at risk without necessity,” he said. “It will be very difficult to persuade police and the military to keep making an effort and risking their lives to ensure that drugs don’t reach a market where there are no controls.”
:depressed
So, so stupid. Just picture it...bunch of military tough guys gathering and attempting to be bad ass, standing around a massive, burning pile of lettuce, essentially.. :lol Compared to what the law thinks it's controlling, marijuana is nothing even close to this nonsense, probably more beneficial to our current society than negative. ====> Lettuce
Not only are they wasting a bunch of time and money on a war to burn "lettuce"....they are essentially burning away HUGE amounts of money. Can't wait til the governments of the world look back in a few years and see just how fucking stupid their actions were, like prohibition, especially considering marijuana is nowhere remotely close to being as destructive as alcohol.
:bang
Truly pathetic.
Go after the real destructive drugs you enormous, gaping vaginas.