Missing license plate leads to huge fentanyl bust in Mexico

Packages containing illegal drugs are seen inside a sports utility vehicle after police stopped the car for a missing front license plate. Photo / AP

Mexico police found a multi-drug shipment that included an astonishing 45.5kg of the synthetic opioid fentanyl in a vehicle near the city of Ensenada in Baja California, officials said Thursday.

Fentanyl can be fatal in doses of just a few milligrams.

To put the size of the haul in perspective, a seizure last year of 2kg of fentanyl in Columbus, Ohio, was said by prosecutors to be enough to potentially kill the entire population of the city of 860,000 people.

Police in Mexico said the drug shipment seized near Ensenada also included 415kg of crystal meth, 40kg of cocaine and 8.4kg of heroin.

Police arrested a man who was driving an SUV stuffed with the drugs near Ensenada. The drugs were so bulky they were stuffed into a pile of sacks that filled the rear of the vehicle.

The man was initially stopped because he lacked a front license plate.

In November, Mexican authorities seized 14kg of fentanyl hidden in a car on a highway between the Gulf of California and San Luis Rio Colorado, which is home to a border crossing with Arizona.

An accidental overdose of fentanyl was determined to have killed music legend Prince in April 2016.

And a coroner's finding showed that among the medications found in the system of the late rock star Tom Petty were fentanyl and oxycodone.