Federal authorities destroyed nearly five tons of seized drugs at a military facility near Tijuana on Wednesday, March 25, in an incineration ceremony that disposed of narcotics valued at roughly 600 million pesos ($33 million USD). The Tijuana drug incineration included methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and opium seized during previous enforcement operations across Baja California.
Methamphetamine Made Up Bulk of the Haul
Teófila González Lozano, head of the FGR (Mexico’s federal attorney general’s office) in Baja California, led the destruction ceremony. She detailed that the largest portion of the cache consisted of methamphetamine hydrochloride, totaling more than four tons combined with 557 kilograms of the same substance in a different variant.
The full inventory also included 114 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride, 178 kilograms of marijuana, and 17 kilograms of opium. In total, authorities eliminated 4,932 kilograms of solid narcotics along with nearly 120 liters of liquid methamphetamine.
Officials said the drugs were seized primarily at strategic highway checkpoints and roads connecting Tijuana to the rest of Baja California. These corridors, including sections of the Tijuana-Tecate and Tijuana-Ensenada highways, are well-known transit routes for narcotics moving toward the U.S. border.
Multi-Agency Operation at Military Base
The ceremony brought together officials from the Mexican Army, the Navy, the National Guard, and Baja California state security forces. Drug incinerations of this kind follow established FGR protocol: once criminal cases tied to seized substances are closed, the evidence is destroyed under supervised conditions at a military installation.
Baja California sits at the center of Mexico’s drug trafficking geography. Tijuana, directly south of San Diego, has long served as a key crossing point for narcotics bound for the United States. The region has seen repeated large-scale seizures in recent years, with authorities intercepting loads at highway checkpoints, border warehouses, and cross-border tunnels.
Wednesday’s incineration is the latest in a series of periodic destruction events that Mexican authorities hold to clear stored evidence. The 600 million peso valuation reflects the estimated street value of the combined substances. State security officials present at the event characterized the destruction as evidence of coordinated multi-agency enforcement across the state, as reported by Punto Norte.