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TIJUANA, Mexico Tons of marijuana 134 tons, in fact sat on a makeshift platform Wednesday on a military base here. And then, after a military band played, after speeches by Army and police commanders, after a laborer sprayed fuel on the verdant, pungent bales, after college students and dignitaries and a throng of journalists took aim with their cameras, it was lit on fire.
And so up in smoke went the equivalent of a few hundred million joints in what Mexican authorities called the largest seizure of the drug in the countrys history, a dash of hype befitting the elaborate ceremony to both get rid of it and highlight a success, any success, in a bloody, lingering drug war.
The authorities could not say with precision what the previous record was, but no matter, this one, they said, had to be the biggest.
With the push of a switch setting off an electrical charge, a few patches of flame burst from the bales and quickly erupted in boiling flames that sent blasts of heat more than 100 meters away and thick, black billowing smoke into the wind.
The column of smoke was visible for several miles and eventually the tell-tale scent began enveloping the area, especially down wind, as guests were ushered out.
It had taken soldiers several hours to unload three tractor-trailers and a smaller truck filled with the 15,300 bales wrapped in plastic and aluminum foil, with some labeled yoyo and dog and wolf or bearing the smiling image of Homer Simpson, apparent branding or labels for distributors in the United States.
It will take two days to burn it all.
Read full story at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/world/americas/22marijuana.html?_r=1&hp
TIJUANA, Mexico Tons of marijuana 134 tons, in fact sat on a makeshift platform Wednesday on a military base here. And then, after a military band played, after speeches by Army and police commanders, after a laborer sprayed fuel on the verdant, pungent bales, after college students and dignitaries and a throng of journalists took aim with their cameras, it was lit on fire.
And so up in smoke went the equivalent of a few hundred million joints in what Mexican authorities called the largest seizure of the drug in the countrys history, a dash of hype befitting the elaborate ceremony to both get rid of it and highlight a success, any success, in a bloody, lingering drug war.
The authorities could not say with precision what the previous record was, but no matter, this one, they said, had to be the biggest.
With the push of a switch setting off an electrical charge, a few patches of flame burst from the bales and quickly erupted in boiling flames that sent blasts of heat more than 100 meters away and thick, black billowing smoke into the wind.
The column of smoke was visible for several miles and eventually the tell-tale scent began enveloping the area, especially down wind, as guests were ushered out.
It had taken soldiers several hours to unload three tractor-trailers and a smaller truck filled with the 15,300 bales wrapped in plastic and aluminum foil, with some labeled yoyo and dog and wolf or bearing the smiling image of Homer Simpson, apparent branding or labels for distributors in the United States.
It will take two days to burn it all.
Read full story at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/world/americas/22marijuana.html?_r=1&hp
i must be the only one
.... oh well, now they gotta pull out last years harvest to get to us.... as far as hurting the cartel financially, I highly doubt its a big deal, they'll compensate with higher prices on bales in the near future.