Honduras finds submarine cocaine

29 July 2011 Last updated at 23:26 GMT Naval forces from the US and Honduras have recovered 2.5 tonnes of cocaine from a semi-submersible craft intercepted off the Honduran coast.

Honduran General Rene Osorio said there were more than five tonnes of cocaine on the vessel, and authorities would need two days to retrieve all of it.

The vessel is submerged because the crew tried to sink it after they were intercepted two weeks ago.

Honduras is on a key route used by cartels trafficking drugs to the US.

Coast guard officials intercepted the submarine-like craft off the Caribbean coast of Honduras near the province of Gracias a Dios.

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Mexico finds huge marijuana farm

15 July 2011 Last updated at 07:08 GMT The Mexican authorities said the plants would have yielded marijuana with a street value of about $160m (?99m)

The Mexican army says it has discovered a huge field with mature marijuana in the northern state of Baja California.

Soldiers were patrolling the area, some 300km (190 miles) south of the US border, when they found the plantation.

The field near the town of San Quintin, measuring 1.2sq km (300 acres), was surrounded by a hedge of cacti. It is the largest marijuana plantation ever found in Mexico, officials say.

They say it would have yielded a harvest worth about $160m (?99m).

A Mexican army spokesman told the BBC it was unclear who owned the territory.

An estimated 60 people were working on the plantation, said the local army commander, Gen Alfonso Duarte.

"When they saw the military personnel, they fled," he told reporters.

The Mexican army has led the war on drug gangs launched by President Felipe Calderon in December 2006.

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