US, Mexico seize cocaine in ‘coordinated’ Pacific operation
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A K9 police dog sniffing a suitcase at El Paso International Airport in Texas, US, after the US Federal Aviation Administration lifted its temporary closure of the airspace over El Paso on Feb 11.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MEXICO CITY – The United States and Mexico seized several tons of cocaine from a ship in a “coordinated operation” in the Pacific Ocean, the Mexican navy said on Feb 11.
The unusual joint action comes despite tensions between the two countries, with US President Donald Trump vowing to strike Mexican drug cartels that he said posed a grave threat to US national security.
“About 188 packages containing several tons of cocaine” were seized from the vessel off Clarion Island, about 1,100km from the Mexican port city of Manzanillo in Colima state, the Mexican navy said in a statement.
Multiple people were arrested, the statement added, without specifying how many.
Mr Trump has threatened to slap additional tariffs on Mexico to pressure the country into beefing up drug raids and cartel arrests.
A free trade agreement between the two neighbours and Canada is up for renegotiation this year.
The Trump administration said on Feb 11 that Mexican cartel drones around the US-Mexico border had forced a Texas airport to shut down temporarily. But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded that her government had received no reports of drones belonging to cartels along the border. AFP
