EAGLE PASS, Texas — Mexican federal police this week discovered and torched a massive marijuana grow site in the country's northern border city of Tijuana that American authorities say contained $277 million of drugs that likely would have been smuggled over the border and into the U.S.

The grow site was located six miles south of the international border in La Rumorosa, Baja California, and halfway between San Diego, Calif., on the west side of the state and El Centro, located on the east side.

The land contained more than 42,000 pot bushes planted across 13 square miles, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The 70,000 pounds of marijuana had a U.S. street value of $276.9 million and was burned at the site Tuesday following a binational investigation into the illegal operation that started last week.

Border Patrol officials out of San Diego, Calif., said the bust was a result of training and equipment U.S. officials recently gave Mexican federal police.

Between April and May, agents from the San Diego and El Centro regions, as well as other unspecified federal officials, held a binational academy for Mexican officials, where they shared new strategies for how to gather intelligence, navigate unmapped areas of land, best practices for building entry, and other skills.

CBP said Mexican officials used intelligence-gathering skills they learned this spring to uncover the suspicious operation in a rural area south of Tijuana. Mexican officials first discovered part of the grow site on June 6, but were unable to determine how big it was or get to it due to a lack of roads into the area.

Mexican officials used Global Positioning System devices they got as part of the U.S. training to gather geographical information on the site so they could return with larger forces.

They returned Tuesday this week with all-terrain vehicles and trucks, and torched the site.

"This undoubtedly fosters a safer and more secure border environment that advances our goal to dismantle and defeat the transnational criminal organizations that threaten the safety of our country," CBP said in a statement issued late Friday.