13 Million USD seized in transit from Tijuana

                                                              13 million seized in Sonyota, Sonora

On November 13th elements of the military and Tax Administrative Services (SAT), seized 13 million from two trucks, en route to Jalisco, Guadalajara.   The money was concealed in empty crates for storing produce, under the guise that the crates were being returned to Jalisco.

The crates had double bottoms, revealing millions in US currency, packaged and wrapped in plastic.   The two drivers were arrested, and the money and vehicles seized.  It is unknown how authorities were able to identify the trucks containing the money, it is extremely unlikely it was a random search, likely the result of intelligence, interrogations, or information from US assets.

The money is likely proceeds being gathered in Tijuana from several large drug shipments, of likely cocaine and crystal, possibly marijuana, as it is harvest season in the sierras of Sinaloa, Chihuahua, and the rest of the Golden Triangle.  The money would be housed in one or several safe houses in Tijuana, likely in middle to upper class neighborhoods, and then gathered for transportation south, to the owners of the product.

Seizures like this are common in Tijuana, and border cities, two years ago an accidental electrical fire and accident revealed a Sinaloa safe house, with millions concealed.  In 2011, a stash house with 15 million was raided, and Juan Sillas Rocha admitted in an interview post arrest, he was planning on robbing it, before he was detained, following a shooting of onetime ally El Marquitos.

The seizure comes as 100 pounds of liquid meth is seized in San Diego, and several members of the Zambada family circle are captured in Culiacan.  Sometimes these are strands of a larger scope, as in the case of the arrests of Serafin Zambada, and Jose Rodrigo Archeigia Gamboa, Chino Antrax, late last year.  And most of the time, no one really knows, including the players, as we all connect pieces and threads of the puzzle.  The money goes south, the drugs north, and everyone keeps getting paid.

Sources: Zeta Tijuana, AFN Tijuana