Mexican troops make marijuana haul in Sharp unit premises

REUTERS

8:48 p.m. May 22, 2008

TIJUANA, Mexico – Mexican troops Thursday uncovered more than 1.5 metric tons of marijuana hidden in a truck inside an installation of a unit of Japanese electronics firm Sharp Corp.

Gen. Sergio Aponte, in charge of a crackdown on drug trafficking in the northern state of Baja California, told a news conference the marijuana was in 336 packets behind boxes carrying TV screens bound for Canada.

Sharp's local lawyer, Marco Antonio Esconda, said the company had no knowledge the drugs and Sharp was not the owner of the truck. He declined to give the name of the company that had been contracted to move the TV screens.

“The (drugs) cargo belonged to one of our local contractors, the drugs appeared inside the premises,” he said. ”What we have to do is to increase security.”

The haul of 1,586 kilos of marijuana was found on the premises of a Sharp subsidiary in the town of Rosarito, close to this gritty border city. One man was arrested at the scene.