CDS Mega Meth Lab Busted on the BC Border

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: ZETA

                      From the Sinaloa Cartel, the mega narco-laboratory in the middle of the forest.

La Rumorosa, a notoriously treacherous stretch of Mex #2 or Mex #20 (Toll portion) which runs just south of and parallel to  the US/Mexican Border in the state of Baja California.

By: Ines Garcia Ramos

In one year, the mega laboratory found by the Army in La Rumorosa, could have manufactured up to 73 tons of methamphetamine, which translates into sales of up to $481,000,000 US dollars in the United States. With first-class industrial equipment and thousands of liters of chemical precursors, it is one of the Sinaloa Cartel's main investments to dominate the synthetic drugs market in the United States, whose demand continues to rise.

The largest methamphetamine laboratory that has been located in Baja California belonged to the Sinaloa Cartel. It was not within the urban sprawl, but in the middle of trees and pines, in the ejido José María Pino Suarez, near the towns of La Rumorosa and El Hongo in Tecate.

According to calculations of the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena), this laboratory installed in the open, could produce up to 73 tons of methamphetamine during the year it operated. This represents six tons per month.

In financial terms, these 73 tons of crystal meth , also known as ice or glass, could be sold in the US, United States for up to $ 481,000,000 US  dollars, considering the cost of  $3,000 dollars per pound that reaches the best quality of methamphetamine on the black market in California.

Security Corporations identify the area where the laboratory was located, as part of the territory that in Tecate controls the Sinaloa Cartel and which is mainly concentrated in La Rumorosa and extends through Ensenada to Ojos Negros and Vizcaíno.

The control of the Sinaloa Cartel includes both the transfer of drugs to the United States and the production of drugs.

The official report of the Army indicates that military elements, specifically the unit belonging to the 67th Infantry Battalion of San Quintín from the operative "El Pinalito", found the laboratory when carrying out ground operations in the area. Certainly, weeks ago, walkers from the wooded area of ​​Baja California, would have alerted the Army of the presence of strange men in the area around where they would find the clandestine laboratory.

Initially, the military operation focused on reconnaissance from air units, but the forested area hid the facilities, so they chose to travel the area on foot. ( This area is very rough arid desert scrub "forest").

That is how they found the laboratory with the capacity to produce up to 200 kilograms a day of the synthetic drug known as crystal and with more than 6,000 liters in chemical precursors and several kilograms of other chemical substances.

Some of the military elements that participated in the initial operation, narrate that the gases generated by the combination of caustic chemicals caused, not only caused a strong smell in the surroundings, but even came to cause irritation in the skin and eyes, without being in contact with them.

On the other hand, a few kilometers from the border with the United States, precisely at the height of Jacume, California , # 9 just north of the US/Mx Border  is one of the main areas for the trafficking of people and narcotics between Baja California and California, the location of the laboratory was strategic for the transfer to that area. country. Actually, there are two Jacume communities, one on either side of the border in a relatively rural area with clandestine border crossings.

Colonel José Manuel Nolasco Fonseca, commander of the 67th Infantry Battalion, explained that the installation of a laboratory so close to the United States represents not only a saving in the costs and times of transfer of the drug for the criminal organization, but also decreases the risk that the drugs are seized.

Equipment with a value of more than three million pesos:

From kilometer 83 of the free federal highway Tijuana-Mexicali, at the entrance to the "Bosque del Cóndor", the military units advanced 15 kilometers on the main road that leads to ranches and tourist attractions, ie campgrounds etc.

About 100 meters from this dirt road, the laboratory was installed divided into three sections, covered by tarps like a roof, but without walls, only trees and shrubs hid the place.

In the first area were ten metal boilers, each with a capacity of 500 liters, where the manufacturing process began.

The chemical substances, such as sodium carbonate (25 sacks were found in the place) and sodium hydroxide (six sacks were found in the place), once evaporated, they traveled through tubes and mixed with a liquid substance contained in a plastic swimming pool.

The liquid substance traveled in turn, through hoses up to two metal containers of industrial size with pressure measurement and two vertical tubes with upward direction that emitted gases.

Other chemicals used in this first stage of development is acetone, a substance that was found in a full 200-liter drum, as well as ethyl alcohol distributed in four metal drums of 200 liters each.

The areas were connected in turn by plastic hoses, transparent or black, which led the substances to other devices in the second stage that contained several tubs with other substances that were mixed to shape the final product.

                   Tubs of partially processed crystal meth during part of the chemical procedure

In the third part there were 15 tubs, each with a capacity of 500 liters. All contained a reddish paste with green flashes that was the crystal in its penultimate stage, before drying, which would allow it to finish solidifying.

In the open air, each tub would take one night to dry, but in addition to this, two industrial centrifuges were found in the laboratory that accelerated the process to a few minutes, since the high-speed rotation of the devices mechanically separated the humidity of the product until it is ready.

For this, the machines required electrical energy that was supplied to them from generators.

In addition to this drug about to end, the military located ten tubs, each of 400 kilograms with crystal meth already manufactured and only waiting to be moved.

Part of the additional material were four metallic filters with a capacity of 80 liters, six metal condensers with hoses of two meters each, 28 metal drums of 200 liters each with remover and two metallic gallons with the legend "tail", as well as multiple gas tank.

Only the drug already finished was seized in the operation, the losses are estimated between 301 and 475 million pesos, depending on the current value of the drug in California. However, its cost in the black market increases as it rises  north of the of the US Border.

While the industrial equipment, without considering the chemical precursors, has a value of more than 3,000,600 thousand pesos.

The Investigation:

Not everyone can acquire the material and real estate necessary to manufacture this synthetic drug.

The purchase of chemical precursors such as sodium hydroxide requires a registration that is taken by the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris). They are only allowed to companies registered in the Tax Administration Service (SAT) and that have a previously authorized corporate name. The same goes for industrial equipment.

Therefore, in the investigations conducted by the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), should review the Cofepris registry to identify which was the corporate name that acquired the located material.

This was explained by Colonel Nolasco Fonseca, who indicated that it will be up to the Federal Public Ministry to follow the investigation required to find out which was the company that collaborated with the narco in the acquisition of this equipment.

While regarding the owners of the land used for the planting and manufacture of synthetic drugs, the area belongs to ejido lands, so in its investigation, the PGR must also cite the ejidatarios to determine responsibilities.

Three tons of marijuana sown nearby in two plantations:

In any military operation of this type, the elements must check the surroundings to verify that there is no danger in the perimeter. It was thus, less than 300 meters from where the laboratory was located, hidden  between the mostly  wooded area, were located two marijuana plantations.

The first with an extension of 7,500 square meters with plants up to 1.70 meters high and the second with an area of ​​12,000 square meters and a height of 1.20 meters.

Between trees and branches, the laboratory:

In total, there were about 90,000 plants with less than 20 days to be ready to harvest. This translates to almost three tons of marijuana worth almost 10 million pesos in the United States.

Army calculations indicate that this area of ​​drug production began two years ago when planting the plantations and from there the laboratory area was added.

The first plantation was delimited by a fence of barbed wire and counted on a pile of water constructed with stones and with a canvas on top to not be detected from the heights.

From the well, placed in an area with more height than the plantations, there were thick hoses, each with a perforated plastic bottle with several holes, which moved the water to the plants. (Gravity flow irrigation system).

Since the plants were almost ready to be defoliated and cut, some of these hoses had been disabled by the crop managers themselves. After only the female plants are chosen, precisely from where the hemp or fruit comes out, better known as colas / ie the flowering part of the plant, giant buds before they are trimmed down), these pieces are accumulated and transferred to other facilities where, with the help of a mechanical compressor, they are compressed and given a rectangular shape to wrap them in cinnamon packaging and transport the marijuana in blocks or packages.

The Army also detected that the seeds of the plants could have been genetically manipulated, since in a period of three months they reached the maturity that in another type of cannabis reaches up to six months. ( Frequently called clones or light deprived to advance maturity , ie forced to flower, in a short period of time

The 90,000 plants were uprooted and on a bed of sticks, incinerated in its entirety, in a military operation.

Camps and Outlooks tasks:

Although, in the laboratory area there was a space dedicated to the food kitchen and with tents, it was in the second plantation where the main camp was located with a kitchen that included an improvised fire pit of a metal tub and a table placed between branches of trees.

Military elements calculate that each week, the ten people who lived there and were responsible for both the manufacture of the drug and the maintenance of the plantations, received food for cooking, as well as water and beer.

This, due to the freshness of some items such as eggs and tortillas. In the same way, they even had a press to make tortillas.

Unlike other plantations, in this camp, the garbage was contained in black bags that were surely carried by the same people who left their food, to avoid being detected by people who moved in the area.

NOTE: By now most of you have read my complaints about garbage infested poisonous grow scenes. 

As a form of communication, they used frequency radios, of which only the chargers were left in some of the tables.

After this better equipped kitchen, when climbing a slope of about 200 meters there was one more camp. Six mattresses placed on the floor and surrounded by tarps to simulate a tent made up the rest area of ​​the lookouts ( Halcones).

The division of tasks was so precise that a person remained on duty outside the camp and with a direct view of the road and the main roads. This was deduced by the military when they found a pillow and a blanket under a tree in this area.

Professionals, who managed the team:

At the same point there were personal hygiene items, such as toothpaste and toothbrush. Similarly, there were marks left with cans and other objects at various points in the highest area to monitor the surroundings.

Partly thanks to the logistics that the personnel maintained, the military suspect, is that they could operate for so long without being discovered. Due to the proximity of the "Lookout Camp" the cookers  could flee when they saw the entry of military units, since no arrests were reported.

How is a laboratory of this type dismantled?

After the PGR carries out the insurance of the chemical precursors and the drug, as well as the sampling for its investigation, the federal agency contracts the services of a company specialized in toxic waste management.

This company, which receives security from the Mexican Army during the withdrawal of substances and equipment, is in charge of both the transfer and storage or, where appropriate, the disposal of the residues of the drug laboratory.

For this, for example, it uses trucks with platforms to be able to take the industrial-size equipment.