Mexico seizes 4th drug flight this year in Baja California

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s federal police and army have seized a small airplane carrying nearly 700 pounds (315 kilograms) of cocaine, about half that much meth and 93 pounds (42 kilograms) of heroin in Baja California state.

It is the fourth such drug flight caught since the beginning of the year in the border state, where law enforcement personnel have disabled eight clandestine landing strips.

The army said Wednesday that the Cessna was intercepted by a military aircraft and landed in a sparsely populated area west of the city of Ensenada.

When the patrol aircraft flew over the landing site Monday, it came under fire from the ground but was not damaged. Soldiers on the ground later found the drugs packed in 17 suitcases aboard the plane.