Mexican soldiers seized more than a ton of fentanyl pills in two raids in the northern state of Sinaloa, in what officials called the largest seizure of the opioid in the country's history.
The raids follow a major drop in fentanyl seizures in Mexico earlier this year, and days after US President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless those countries curb the flow of migrants and drugs across the border. .
A Mexican security official said soldiers and marines spotted two men carrying weapons late Tuesday in the northern state of Sinaloa, home to the drug cartel of the same name.
They chased the men, who hid in two houses. In one house, soldiers found about 300 kilograms of fentanyl, and in another, a truck with about 800 kilograms of the drug, mostly in the form of tablets.
The opioid fentanyl is responsible for about 70.000 overdose deaths a year in the U.S., and U.S. officials have tried to step up efforts to seize it when it comes across the border, often in the form of counterfeit pills made in Mexico from chemicals mostly imported from China.
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