US, Mexico seize tons of cocaine in coordinated Pacific operation

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The United States and Mexico seized several tons of cocaine from a ship in a "coordinated operation" in the Pacific Ocean, the Mexican navy said Wednesday.

The unusual joint action comes despite tensions between the two countries, with US President Donald Trump vowing to strike Mexican drug cartels that he said posed a grave threat to national security.

"About 188 packages containing several tons of cocaine" were seized from the vessel off Clarion Island, about 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) from the Mexican port city of Manzanillo in Colima state, the Mexican navy said in a statement.

Multiple people were arrested, the statement added, without specifying how many.

Trump has threatened to slap additional tariffs on Mexico to pressure the country into beefing up drug raids and cartel arrests.

A free trade agreement between the two neighbors and Canada is up for renegotiation this year.

The Trump administration said Wednesday that Mexican cartel drones around the US-Mexico border had forced a Texas airport to shut down temporary.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded that her government had received no reports of drones belonging to cartels along the border.

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