MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon — An anonymous call led to the discovery of more than 6.5 tons of a chemical used to manufacture methamphetamine hidden in the bed of a tractor-trailer. The precursors were headed to a clandestine lab in Nuevo Leon. The seizure revealed a change in drug distribution strategies.

The seizure took place in the municipality of Garcia, one of the areas that have seen an uptick in cartel violence in the state. The information from the anonymous call led authorities to pull over a tractor trailer with a refrigeration system near the Mithras Industrial Park. Inside, authorities found 259 large containers with 6,475 kilograms of phenylacetic acid (Phenylacetamide).

The seizure of the chemical was kept largely compartmentalized by Mexico’s Attorney General’s office in Nuevo Leon, as well as the arrest of the driver, 32-year-old Angel De Jesus (last name not released).

Earlier this month, Mexican marines seized 20 tons of phenylacetic acid in the Port City of Manzanillo, Colima, Breitbart Texas reported. The chemical was hidden inside a shipping container with 720 drums called Coyhaique that arrived from Shanghai.

While authorities have not linked the seizures in Colima and Nuevo Leon, law enforcement officials revealed to Breitbart Texas that there is a possibility that cartels could be changing tactics and are now setting up clandestine laboratories near the border with the U.S. instead of locations in Sinaloa, Colima, and Michoacan.

“The final destination of the shipment is a key part of the investigation,” a former law enforcement official with access to case information revealed to Breitbart Texas. “The quantity of the product points to a cooking operation in either Coahuila, Nuevo Leon or in Tamaulipas.”



Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Tony Aranda from Nuevo Leon.