Mexican authorities destroyed three synthetic drug labs in Sinaloa, seizing more than 4,000 kilograms of methamphetamine and nearly 1,000 kilograms of other synthetic drugs in May 2026. Meanwhile, across the country, naval and state police raided cartel sea-based smuggling depots in beach communities in the southern state of Chiapas.
The security actions demonstrate the continued resolve of Mexico to confront transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). The federal government, through the Secretariat of the Navy (MARINA) and the federal security forces, is “keeping its promise to collaborate with local authorities to uphold the rule of law and combat illicit activities that endanger the population,” stated a MARINA news release about the Chiapas busts.
In the Sinaloa operation, MARINA elements working with the Federal Attorney General’s Office dismantled three clandestine drug laboratories in the towns of Los Haros and Los Cedritos, according to a May 21 joint release from the agencies. No arrests or violence was reported and authorities confiscated 4,200 kilograms of methamphetamine and 850 kilograms of other synthetic drugs in advanced states of preparation, the release stated.
The next day, elements of MARINA in collaboration with Chiapas State Police, the Chiapas Attorney General’s Office and the State Secretariat of Public Security and Citizen Protection executed four search warrants across the southern Mexican state. Security forces seized a warehouse, drugs, weapons and fuel, according to a May 22 MARINA news release.
In the town of Paredón, a popular tourist beach community, authorities seized 50 packages of suspected cocaine, more than 60 50-liter drums filled with gasoline, nine satellite buoys and ammunition in a warehouse that Mexican authorities said was used for drugs arriving by sea, the release stated.
Further south along the Chiapas coast in the town of Chocohuital, more drums of gasoline, a long gun, ammunition, five satellite communication devices, beacons, documents and a small boat were seized. At the town’s dock, four people were arrested and more satellite communications equipment, compasses, radio equipment, power converters, a long gun, ammunition, outboard motors and more than 80 jugs filled with gasoline were confiscated along with a small amount of cocaine, the release stated.
Still more drug-smuggling materials like gasoline, beacons, propellers and bilge pumps were in the town of Playa Grande, the release stated. Playa Grande is known as an ecotourism-focused beach town bordering the La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve.
Chiapas state has been contested ground between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel since at least 2019, the Spanish newspaper, El País, reported. The state, bordering the Pacific Ocean, has been fertile ground for drug smuggling in the eastern Pacific.