How much is 4,500 pounds of $100 bills worth?

About $205 million.

That's how much cash was seized at a ritzy estate in Mexico City; it was the proceeds of a huge methamphetamine operation that involved the importation of pseudoephedrine from overseas, says this LA Times story.

Before Friday, the largest reported amount of cash seized by Mexican authorities was $7 million, which was found inside electric appliances at Mexico City's international airport in 2005. The appliances were headed for Colombia.

Mexican officials said they worked past midnight Thursday to count the seized bills, which were hidden inside locked metal shelves, suitcases and closets. It was five times the amount that was seized in all of 2006 by Mexican authorities in anti-narcotic and money-laundering operations.

To provide a sense of the scale of the money involved, Mexican media compared the amount seized to various items in the 2007 federal budget.

The $205.6 million was more than the funding allocated to pensions for the handicapped by Mexico's social security agency. It exceeded the amount of public funds provided to Mexico's political parties for campaign spending and also surpassed the budget of the Mexican Senate.

That's a lotta money outta the pockets of a lotta dope fiends here in the USA.

And wait til they see their dental bills. If you think gingivitis makes people avoid close contact with you, wait'll you enter a crowded elevator with meth mouth.