The Mexican Navy and state and federal prosecutors celebrated the incineration in October 2024 of more than six metric tons of illicit drugs captured from cartels. MEXICAN NAVY
THE WATCH STAFF
The Mexican Navy announced the seizure and incineration of more than six metric tons of illicit drugs in October 2024. Naval officials from the Third Naval Region together with representatives from the Attorney General’s Office and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in the State of Veracruz attended the ceremonial incineration, which also disposed of 26 other unnamed objects involved in drug crimes, according to a Mexican Navy news release. Chemists and forensic experts along with members of the Federal Ministerial Police and the Criminal Investigation Agency were also present. The drugs incinerated included marijuana, cocaine hydrochloride, methamphetamine hydrochloride and clonazepam.
The latest incineration comes shortly after President Claudia Sheinbaum assumed office in October 2024. Sheinbaum has said she plans to largely continue the internal security policies of her predecessor, Andrès Manuel López Obrador. Those policies included greater integration of the security forces with other state and federal agencies.
The October ceremony illustrates the increasing collaboration among different Mexican governmental entities. “In this way, the Secretariat of the Navy, through the Mexican Navy, contributes to the sum of efforts to combat the illicit activities of organized crime, through coordinated actions of the three levels of government, managing to prevent the distribution of illicit substances by criminal groups and thus contribute to the internal security of the country, in addition to contributing to the fight in the international transfer of drugs from Mexican ports and coasts,” the release stated.
The Mexican government has also stepped up its collaboration with the United States to stem trafficking across their shared border. Their military leaders meet regularly in high-level discussions, and Mexico has responded aggressively to reduce the arrival of asylum seekers to the U.S. That response has improved security and eased often squalid living conditions in informal migrant camps along both sides of the border. The Mexican Armed Forces, especially the Mexican Navy, has taken the lead in drug seizures and battling powerful cartels.
The Mexican Navy boasts a high level of trust: One recent survey found that nearly 70% of the country’s residents trust the institution. The Navy, especially the roughly 18,000-strong Mexican Naval Infantry, has enjoyed a string of successes in the last 15 years, including the capture of the notorious Sonoran drug lord “El Chapo” Guzman in 2016. “One of the Naval Infantry’s most important achievements was the dismantling of the criminal structure of the Los Zetas group, in the state of Veracruz, from 2008 to 2012,” Raúl Benitez-Manaut, a professor at the National University of Mexico and an expert on Mexican defense issues, told The National Interest, a U.S. news magazine.