Mexico City  - The Mexican Navy found cocaine hidden in frozen shark meat aboard a ship during a weekend raid that dealt a hefty blow to the drug cartels.

The Mexican daily El Universal reported Wednesday that the load amounted to 893 kilogrammes of cocaine in 800 packets.

The same newspaper had earlier quoted the Mexican Navy as saying that they had found some five tonnes of cocaine hidden in 400 shark bodies.

The drugs were hidden in two containers onboard the Dover Straits, a freight ship sailing under the flag of the Marshall Islands which had travelled from Costa Rica to the United States and then returned to Mexico. Its final destination was Guatemala, according to news reports late Wednesday.

The haul of drugs took place in the Puerto Progreso harbour on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Port authorities had been tipped off about the suspicious load, the Navy said in a statement late Tuesday. They found bags of cocaine inside the frozen sharks.

Over the years cartels have used increasingly creative methods to smuggle drugs into the lucrative US and European markets. They hide narcotics in cars, boats, planes and even submarines, and often use frozen animal meat. (dpa)