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Mexico seizes $206M in raid

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 17, 2007

MEXICO CITY - Federal agents seized about $206-million believed to be tied to the methamphetamine trade and detained seven people at a luxury home in one of Mexico City's most upscale neighborhoods, officials said Friday.

The attorney general's office said it was Mexico's largest seizure of drug money.

The agents also seized eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a machine to make pills Thursday from the home in the Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood, a collection of walled compounds that is home to ambassadors and Mexican business magnates.

The U.S. dollars were hidden inside walls, suitcases and closets.

Two of the seven people arrested at the home were Chinese, and authorities said the bust hinted at the vast scope of an illegal drug trade that links Mexico to Asia.

Federal investigators said the search of the home was part of an investigation into the company Unimed Pharm Chem de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., which allegedly imported from India large quantities of the ingredients needed to make methamphetamine.

The investigation began in December after officials seized 19.5 tons of pseudoephedrine in the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas.

Since the United States cracked down on the mass sale of cold medicines used to make methamphetamine, Mexico has become one of the world's largest producers of the synthetic drug.

Officials said they worked past midnight to count the bills.

Fast Facts:

Mucho dinero

The seized cash was mostly in U.S. $100 bills and weighed at least 4,500 pounds. It was five times the amount seized in all of 2006 by Mexican authorities in money-laundering and antinarcotic and operations.

[Last modified March 17, 2007, 02:08:07]