TIJUANA – In "one of the biggest blows" against any criminal organization in Baja California, state police seized cocaine worth an estimated $19.3 million, authorities announced Sunday.

The cocaine belonged to the Sinaloa cartel, according the statement issued by the Baja California police (known as PEP).

The department said that investigations carried out by its intelligence unit led them Saturday afternoon to a house at Calzada Guadalupe Street in the La Villa neighborhood, on the city's east side.

The investigators had determined that a lieutenant for Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, lived there and used the house to store cocaine, the PEP said.

State police raided the house in a special operation and found 213 packages containing cocaine, weapons, ammunition and a Chevrolet van, the department said.

State agents detained Jesús Hernández Valenzuela, 48, who said he worked for the Sinaloa cartel, the statement said.

Due to the large amount of cocaine, the PEP mounted a special detail to transfer the drug and the suspect to the agency's base of operation, in the Río zone.

The packages had a total weight of 519 pounds, which would have provide more than 1 million doses, and had an estimated street value of $19.3 million, the statement said.

The arsenal seized at the house included a 9 mm pistol, a .308 rifle, ten unspent .45 mm cartridges, fifteen 7.62 X 39 mm shots, 200 .38 Super bullets and four metal clips.

The statement said the cocaine seizure is "one of the biggest blows" ever delivered against any criminal organization established in Baja California.

Early in the year, state and municipal law enforcement authorities, as well as politicians, declared that the drug cartels had lost much of their power in the all-important smuggling area of Tijuana, after three years of fighting among themselves and the governments' crackdown.

As the year advanced, however, there has been growing evidence that at least one cartel, the one from Sinaloa, has reorganized and expanded its local operations. In mid-July, the military discovered the largest marijuana field ever detected in Mexico, a 300-acre spread south of Ensenada.

And there was this weekend's cocaine haul, both attributed to the Sinaloa cartel.

This is occurring at a time when municipal and state authorities continue their initiative to dismiss corrupt officers, an effort far from finished.

Omar.millan@sandiegored.com