Tijuana: 21 liters of liquid cocaine seized at airport

21 liters of liquid cocaine seized at airport

An airport is nothing if not a microcosm of a society, trade, and commerce, as thousands pass through it's doors, for business, pleasure, passion, others simply earn a living in the closed world of an international airport.  Across Mexico, and in border cities, groups of traffickers collaborate and conspire, conversations in hotel bars, stash houses, upscale restaurants networks coordinate the purchase, packaging, transport of cocaine.  Where it lands, how it gets there, who picks it up, who buys it, who resells it, who processes it, who crosses it, who buys it, and for what price.  

21 liters of liquid cocaine is, according to a calculation, is 21 kilos.  The cocaine was concealed in shampoo and hair product bottles, and sent from FEDEX.  It's unknown where it originated, but Mexico City is a common central point for trafficking of smaller drug shipments into the city.  The General Abelardo L. Rodriguez International Airport is not known as a place where major drug shipments are seized, t 21 kilos is the largest one, I can think of recently. Generally, it will be a few kilos of heroin, cocaine, meth, concealed on, or in a passenger, and their luggage.   Recently, 8 kilos, roughly 4 of heroin, and 4 of meth were discovered in thousands of tiny bags. 

Note , the 4 kilos seized in May were in powder form, not pressed kilos.  The first thought would be that they are possibly of a higher quality, and would be pressed and recut in Tijuana.  Also, it could be solely for smuggling purposes, the same kilos broken down into power, and given to couriers.  

Once the product gets to Tijuana, it will likely be crossed to buyers in San Diego, or more often Los Angeles, as the cost of a kilo purchased further south, perhaps at a higher purity level, will leave more room for profit.  Methamphetamine is cheap and widely available in Tijuana and San Diego, but cocaine is more expensive and scare.  Besides smaller loads sent by sub groups and smaller cells, there is no advantage to smuggling methamphetamine in this method. 

Liquified cocaine must be re converted into cocaine hydrochloride, and pressed into a kilo brick, to be sold to almost any and all buyers, as the re conversion process is not commonly known, even amongst traffickers, plus assessing quality would be much more difficult.  This would likely be repressed in Tijuana, and then smuggled across, although the liquid form may be more appealing.  In June 2012, a man from El Salvador was arrested at the San restaurants border with 71 pounds of liquid cocaine.   

Liquid cocaine is not commonly seized at the border, or anywhere else in the country, though it does occur from time to time.  The product in it's liquid form would have to be within a small circle of very trusted individuals, likely family members.  I know there is always a messy debate about numbers, and I agree that there are too many variables to predict entirely what the value would be to one person or another.  You can say with a degree of accuracy that this was worth about 400,000, upon purchase in Tijuana. 

If the kilos were of an above average purity, of say 90$, you could add an extra 200,000 or so, assuming the product would be processed, yielding an extra 4 kilos or so, conservative estimate.  The average purity of a seized kilo in the United States is 74%, down 10% from 10 years earlier. (Per the DEA report for 2016)  If one can safely assume that the most kilos seized are on the Southwest border, which accounts for roughly 90% of incoming cocaine, you can assume the average kilo leaving border cities is roughly 75%. 

Sources: AFN Tijuana, Zeta Tijuana,