Thread: Justice Department: Mexico is main methamphetamine supplier

Justice Department: Mexico is main methamphetamine supplier to US

01/06/2008

By JESSICA BERNSTEIN-WAX / Associated Press


Mexican drug traffickers are the main suppliers of methamphetamine to the U.S. and produce enormous quantities of the drug despite government crackdowns, according to a recent U.S. Justice Department report.

Mexico's efforts to restrict imports of precursor chemicals needed to make the drug, and a number of high-profile drug busts, have not led to lower meth production, the report said.

"Despite heightened chemical import restrictions in Mexico, methamphetamine production in that country has increased since 2004, and Mexico is now the primary source of methamphetamine to U.S. drug markets," the National Drug Intelligence Center's 2008 report on methamphetamine said.

The report was dated December but highlighted in several Mexican newspapers Sunday.

President Felipe Calderon has made the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking a cornerstone of his administration, deploying more than 24,000 agents to violence-wracked areas.

In a December speech marking his first year in office, Calderon said security forces had arrested some 15,000 people with links to organized crime and made numerous drug busts since January 2007.

Last March, police raided the Mexico City home of Chinese businessman Zhenli Ye Gon and seized some $207 million in cash allegedly linked to one of the Western Hemisphere's largest trafficking rings for pseudoephedrine, the main chemical ingredient in methamphetamine.

Government officials could not be reached for comment Sunday, which was "Three Kings Day," a popular Roman-Catholic holiday in Mexico.

In the wake of the March raid, Mexico now requires prescriptions for medicines that contain pseudoephedrine and blocks over-the-counter sales of the decongestant.

But traffickers have adapted by using alternate routes to smuggle restricted chemicals into Mexico, importing non-restricted precursor chemicals and mislabeling substances to trick customs officials, the Justice Department report said.

Mexican cartels are also increasingly distributing the drugs themselves in U.S. markets such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas, according to the report, selling directly through street gangs and bypassing established networks.

Violent crime in Mexico remains rampant despite Calderon's much-touted drug offensive, and Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora reported Friday that drug and organized crime related killings rose to 2,500 in 2007, up from 2,350 in 2006.


www.dallasnews.com

Mexico's efforts to restrict imports

LOL and people like to blame American Law enforcement

Again, MExico is not serious about reducing either the illegal drug trade nor illegal immigration....why? Because it is their main sources of revenue. Plain and simple. Too many people in Mexico and its government make money from both of these sources of revenues. Mexican officials believe it's just easier to keep blaming Americans and then demand that we give them taxpayer funds to solve their problems.

Mexico does not have a democracy--they have a parasitic form of government and unfortunately the US is the host.

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Of course, MExico is to blame, but that doesn't excuse this country's failure to do something about it.

Our so called war on drugs is just a farce - always has been. They enforce drug laws like they enforce immigration laws - show and tell.

They pick up low level dealers and prosecute them so they can keep full the new for-profit prisons, owned and operated by political contributors, and let the big time people go. I mean how can you say a country is serious about drugs that does what this country did in the Ramos and Campean case?

They aren't.

Any country whose government is pushing for this superhighway and for Mexican trucks to run our highways is not serious about drug enforcement or our security.

You mean making me feel like a druggie and having to show ID's and have a record of my purchases for my allergy pills hasn't "fixed" this problem? And they were so sure.......

crazybird wrote:

You mean making me feel like a druggie and having to show ID's and have a record of my purchases for my allergy pills hasn't "fixed" this problem? And they were so sure.......

lol now that was funny...thank you for making me laugh!

Fences make good neighbors.

bttt