MEXICO CITY, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Mexican soldiers hunting for drug cartels seized a stash of more than $26 million in cash at a house in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, the defense ministry said on Thursday.

The soldiers also found guns and two bags of marijuana in a weekend raid at the house in the city of Culiacan, territory of the powerful Sinaloa drug alliance headed by Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, the army said.

The raid also turned up what the defense ministry said was evidence of money-laundering by groups working for another Sinaloa cartel boss, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

Troops and federal police units deployed in President Felipe Calderon's nearly two-year crackdown on drug gangs have made a string of seizures of drugs, arms and cash in recent months, but have been unable to stem spiraling cartel violence that has killed more than 2,700 people this year.

Mexico's smuggling cartels buy masses of illegal U.S. arms and their safe houses across the country brim with laundered cash from their myriad organized crime businesses.

Sinaloa state, on the Pacific coast, is home to prime smuggling routes running up to the U.S. border, gateway to the lucrative U.S. market for South American cocaine and other illegal drugs.

Last year, Mexican police uncovered a mind-boggling $206 million in bank notes crammed into cases and closets at the Mexico City mansion of a suspected drug kingpin, thought to be the biggest cash seizure in history. (Reporting by Catherine Bremer; editing by Todd Eastham)

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