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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Guatemala Seizes Cargo of Crystal Meth
Ingredients
GUATEMALA – Anti-drug agents seized 400,000
tablets of pseudoephedrine – used to make
methamphetamine – in warehouses at the
capital’s La Aurora International Airport,
police said Thursday.
A police spokesman told reporters that the
drug was found Wednesday in the warehouses
of Combex-IM Express Aereo, an air freight
company.
While verifying the contents of 20 cardboard
boxes, anti-drug agents found the
pseudoephedrine, which is used in the
manufacture of synthetic drugs such as the
highly addictive crystal meth.
Police said the pseudoephedrine, the sale of
which is prohibited in Guatemala, was
transported to the Central American country
from Bangladesh.
Authorities have not determined to whom the
shipment was being sent, the spokesman said.
Last week, police seized 475,000 tablets of
pseudoephedrine in the warehouses of Combex-IM,
while 500,000 tablets were confiscated at La
Aurora on Nov. 2 after arriving on a flight
from Paraguay.
So far this year, security forces have
seized pseudoephedrine valued at more than
$15 million.
Guatemalan police on Thursday also found the
charred remains of a small plane that
apparently was used to transport illegal
drugs.
A spokesman said the aircraft was found in a
reedy area on the Las Chuscas farm in the
southern coastal province of Escuintla.
At the site, in addition to the burned
airplane, security forces also found fuel
containers, the official said.
The spokesman said that police launched an
operation in that region to find the people
responsible for burning the plane and the
possible cargo of drugs that was transported
in it.
Guatemala is used as a bridge location by
international drug traffickers who,
according to the U.S. Embassy, ship some 250
tons of cocaine through the country each
year. EFE |
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