During a routine inspection, federal police and marines discovered a cargo container filled with packets of the drug aboard the Hong Kong-flagged ship Esmeralda, which departed from Buenaventura, Colombia, the federal attorney general’s office said in a statement Wednesday.

Authorities were still weighing the drugs but the statement said their weight had already surpassed 11 tons, making Tuesday’s seizure “one of the greatest quantities of cocaine that has been decommissioned in the history of our country,” the statement said.

On Oct. 5, authorities said they seized about 10 tons of cocaine following a shootout in the northern city of Tampico.

President Felipe Calderon has made the fight on drugs and organized crime a cornerstone of his administration, and the U.S. unveiled a proposal earlier this month to give Mexico US$1.4 billion (euro970 million) to fight narcotics-related crime.

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