The United States Air Force used its largest cargo aircraft, a C-5M Super Galaxy, to move 50 metric tonnes of seized illegal drugs from California to a destruction facility in Indiana, defence officials disclosed on Tuesday. The multi-day mission, designated “Operation Burnout”, transported a stockpile that included cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl from March Air Reserve Base to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, before the contraband was taken onward for incineration. A senior Drug Enforcement Administration advisor told the Department of Defense that a backlog of confiscated narcotics had built up after environmental closures of hazardous material destruction sites, and that moving the drugs by road across multiple states would have posed unacceptable security risks given the street value of the evidence.

In Mexico, federal authorities intercepted 2.66 kilogrammes of ketamine hydrochloride concealed in a false-bottomed suitcase that arrived at Cancún International Airport on a flight from Bogotá, Colombia. The Gabinete de Seguridad said the seizure was made during routine inspections by customs and army personnel, but no arrests were reported and the identity of the passenger linked to the luggage was not disclosed. The ketamine, an anaesthetic also used as a recreational drug, was found in rectangular packages inside the bag’s lining.

Brazilian police reported three significant interdictions in the same period. In Manaus, civil police acting on an anonymous tip seized approximately 400 kilogrammes of skunk – a high-potency cannabis derivative – and arrested three people at a condominium in the Ponta Negra neighbourhood; one suspect had prior drug trafficking convictions. On the BR-476 highway in Paraná state, federal highway police discovered over two tonnes of marijuana and 13.8 kilogrammes of skunk hidden among a cargo of toilet paper; no arrests were mentioned in initial statements. Further north, at the Candiru river base in Óbidos, Pará, security forces found 11.9 kilogrammes of a substance analogous to skunk taped to the bodies of passengers on a vessel travelling from Manaus to Santarém; one adult was arrested and an adolescent was taken into custody.

In Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested three people – two from St-Sauveur, Quebec, and one from Allardville, New Brunswick – and seized 67 kilogrammes of cocaine, Can$115,000 in cash, ammunition and mobile phones from a residence in St-Sauveur. The suspects, aged 42, 50 and 72, face charges of importing and trafficking cocaine and were due to appear for a bail hearing in Montreal. Authorities in each country said investigations were continuing to determine the provenance and intended destinations of the drugs, and no cross-border links between the cases have been established.