Mexican authorities confirmed the seizure of 40,000 pounds of chemicals used to manufacture meth on a ship from China.

The seizure took place during an inspection by customs officers and marines in the port city of Manzanillo, Colima, information released by the Mexican Navy revealed.

A ship by the name Coyhaique had left Shanghai and was destined for the Mexican Port of Lazaro Cardenas. When the ship arrived at Manzanillo for customs purposes, authorities boarded the ship and discovered that one of the containers had 720 drums filled with phenylacetic acid, a chemical used in the creation of methamphetamine.

The Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, where the precursors were destined, continues to be one of the main international commerce hubs for Mexico. The area is used heavily by Mexican drug cartels to move large quantities of chemicals needed to manufacture narcotics in clandestine laboratories. The Mexican state of Michoacan is seeing a spike in violence between various cartels over local control and distribution routes.

The port city of Manzanillo has seen its share of large drug and chemical seizures made by customs officials in shipping containers from other countries destined for Mexican ports, Breitbart Texas reported. In 2016, authorities found a large cocaine shipment inside more than 200 drums filled with salsa. That shipment was headed for Mazatlan, Sinaloa.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.