Mexican Navy inspectors seized 11,520 tequila bottles bound for export that actually contained about 10 tons of concentrated liquid meth, the Navy said Monday.
The discovery was made over the weekend in the Pacific coast port of Manzanillo, the Navy said. It said the bottles contained an estimated 8,640 kilograms (about 19,000 pounds) of meth.
Seizure photos show a dog alerting inspectors to a cardboard box full of a brown liquid in a glass bottle, consistent with the color of “anejo,” or aged tequila. The labels on the bottles were not visible.
Secretary of the Navy/Semar
Mexico is the world’s only producer of pure tequila. Although there have been no reports of such bottles reaching consumers, the mixture would be extremely dangerous to consume.
Mexico has become a major producer of meth, and drug smugglers are often stopped at the border with liquid meth in their car’s windshield washer fluid or other containers.
Liquid meth is usually recovered by smugglers and taken to special facilities where the water is extracted and the drug returned to its crystalline form.
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