Mexico drug raid seizes US$206m

Mexico's general said the US$206 million in cash seized from a luxury Mexico City house was connected to one of the hemisphere's largest networks for trafficking pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamines.

In an interview on Friday, Eduardo Medina Mora said the ring had been operating since 2004 and was run by a native of China who has gained Mexican citizenship. The alleged gang leader is in hiding, possibly outside of the country, Medina Mora said.

"This organization had been introducing the illegally imported product to our country and maybe to the United States," Medina Mora said. "There are certainly connections between this group and methamphetamine producers."

Federal seized the cash, eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a machine to make pills during a raid on Thursday at a house in Lomas de Chapultepec, a neighborhood of walled compounds that is home to ambassadors and business magnates. Seven people were arrested.

Officials said it was the largest seizure ever in Mexico.

Medina Mora said the network likely had links to Mexican drug cartels that traffic tonnes of methamphetamines to the US, though authorities do not know which ones.

Medina Mora said Thursday's raid was connected to an investigation into an alleged front company, Unimed Pharm Chem de Mexico SA, which is believed to have imported large quantities of the ingredients needed to make methamphetamines from Asia.

The investigation began in December after officials seized 18 tonnes of pseudoephedrine in the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas.