By Sarah Morland

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -U.S. development supplies agency Vulcan Supplies (NYSE:) Co stated on Monday that Mexican safety forces illegally took possession final week of its port terminal in southern Mexico, as an prolonged authorized battle over its close by limestone mining actions performs out.

The incident passed off final Tuesday night time on the terminal within the in style vacationer hub of Playa del Carmen, and follows a five-year combat with the federal government over Vulcan’s concessions punctuated by sharp criticism from the nation’s president final yr.

Vulcan, which markets crushed stone in addition to asphalt and ready-mixed concrete, stated in an announcement on Sunday that staff from Mexican cement firm Cemex accompanied the safety forces final week as a part of the takeover of their port terminal.

“We’re shocked in Cemex and within the Mexican authorities entities that supported this reckless and reprehensible armed seizure of our non-public property,” Vulcan stated within the assertion.

Vulcan declined to say how final week’s motion was unlawful or who at present controls the terminal.

The corporate additionally contends {that a} resolution by the federal government final yr to close down its operations was unlawful.

Cemex on Monday defended its actions final week, saying they had been backed by a neighborhood court docket and a latest order from state prosecutors.

Cemex in an announcement referred to its contract with a neighborhood Vulcan unit relationship again twenty years which it stated permits it to make use of the terminal.

The corporate added that an order from prosecutors granted it entry to the port terminal premises, and that on March 14 authorities enforced it. This, Cemex stated, adopted what the corporate described as months of failed negotiations with the Vulcan unit.

Mexico’s safety ministry didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The Alabama-based agency has been unable to quarry and ship development supplies because the Mexican authorities shut down its operations final Might over issues of dangerous impacts of underwater limestone mining on the native surroundings and water desk.

On the time, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador criticized the impacts as an “ecological disaster.”

Video footage shared on Fox Information, which Vulcan confirmed, confirmed round a dozen safety officers getting into the positioning in police vans final week, in addition to a Cemex-branded pickup truck.