Mexico seizes 80 tonnes of drug-making chemicals

Police in Mexico have seized 80 tonnes of chemicals used to manufacture synthetic drugs from a boat coming from Shanghai.

About 400 barrels of ethyl phenyl acetate arrived in Manzanillo from Shanghai in five containers, Mexico's federal Public Safety Secretariat (SSP) said in a statement Friday, adding that the amount confiscated is one of the biggest-ever seizures of drug-making chemicals in Mexico.

Earlier, on March 28, police received intelligence reports that a ship from Shanghai carrying the chemicals was on its way to Manzanillo.

The chemicals were later taken for analysis.

Mexican drug cartels have been manufacturing synthetic drugs for several years now, which are later smuggled via the Pacific region to the US, the world's biggest market for illicit narcotics.