MEXICO CITY, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Naval forces seized 4.8 tons of marijuana and 1.7 tons of the synthetic drug known as crystal off the coast of the Mexican state of Sonora, the Naval Secretariat said Friday.
Officials with the Fourth Naval Region, based at the port of Guaymas on the Gulf of California, found 6.5 tons of drugs onboard two boats during an aerial patrol on Thursday, the agency said in a statement.
The boats were hidden among mangroves on a beach with foliage that concealed the packages containing the drugs. Marines descended by a rope from a helicopter to check them.
It is the second batch of drugs the Mexican navy has seized in less than a month along the Sonora coastline. The area, which borders the U.S. state of Arizona, is used by drug traffickers to smuggle drugs into the United States, according to authorities from both countries.
On Feb. 15, 8.8 tons of marijuana was seized after naval forces chased two boats with traffickers who ended up abandoning them on a beach in Puerto Libertad, some 330 km from Guaymas.
