Mexico’s Second Naval Zone and federal prosecutors incinerated more than 12 metric tons of marijuana at a military facility in Ensenada on the morning of May 14, destroying drugs seized during multiple anti-cartel operations across the port city.
The controlled burn took place at the Naval Agricultural Unit in Ensenada. Authorities destroyed exactly 12,154 kilograms of marijuana packed into 1,119 individual packages, according to officials present at the event.
Joint Operation Between Navy and Federal Prosecutors
SEMAR (Mexico’s Secretary of the Navy) carried out the incineration jointly with FEMDO, the organized crime unit of the FGR (Attorney General’s Office). A rear admiral at the scene said the marijuana had been seized at multiple points across the Ensenada municipality as part of coordinated interdiction efforts.
The drugs were collected from several separate operations rather than a single bust. Officials did not specify over what time period the seizures occurred or how many individual operations contributed to the total haul.
Ensenada’s Role as a Transit Corridor
Ensenada, located roughly 80 miles south of the U.S. border at San Diego, has long served as a transit and storage point for narcotics moving northward. The port city’s coastline, highway connections to Tijuana, and proximity to the border make it a strategic location for drug trafficking organizations.
The Mexican navy has been active in Baja California in recent months. In a separate operation earlier this year, naval authorities in Ensenada seized eight million liters of contraband diesel fuel, part of a crackdown on fuel smuggling operations in the region.
Scale of the Destruction
At 12 metric tons, the single-day burn ranks as a substantial destruction event, though it falls well short of Mexico’s largest marijuana seizures. The country’s record marijuana bust was 134 metric tons seized in Tijuana in 2010. Still, the volume destroyed on Wednesday points to sustained enforcement activity along the Baja California coast.
Mexican security forces have publicly emphasized multi-agency coordination in recent months under President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration. The navy has played a central role, recording major drug and contraband seizures at sea and on land across the country.
This story was first reported by Punto Norte.