Thread: The Mexican Connection (Meth/Drug Cartels)

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonia ... xml&coll=7

The Mexican Connection

Huge increases in imports by Mexico of the key chemical in making meth signal a switch in strategy by drug cartels to move labs south of the border
Sunday, June 05, 2005
STEVE SUO
MEXICO CITY -- America's methamphetamine crisis is now rooted in Mexico, where drug cartels are illicitly obtaining tons of pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient needed to make the potent stimulant.

Mexico's imports of the cold medicine have vaulted from 66 tons to 224 tons in the past five years, customs records show. That's roughly double what the country needs to meet the legitimate demands of cold and allergy sufferers, an analysis by The Oregonian found.

U.S. officials say meth production in Mexico is rising because Mexican traffickers can no longer easily obtain pseudoephedrine in the United States and Canada, which have cracked down on companies that sell cold pills. The number of Mexican-run "superlabs" found in California has plummeted in the past three years, the officials say, yet Mexican-made meth remains widely available on the streets of the United States.

Although some U.S. officials predicted three years ago that traffickers would start acquiring pseudoephedrine in Mexico, the United States and Mexico failed to prevent it from happening.

U.S. officials say they have been talking to the Mexican government about the country's surging imports of pseudoephedrine powder since 2003.

However, those discussions have been confined largely to officials below the Cabinet level. Senior U.S. law enforcement officials have not raised the issue in their public testimony before Congress.

Mexican authorities have moved to restrict the number of cold pills consumers can buy, to confine sales to pharmacies and to shut down a number of distributors. But only this year is Mexico beginning to roll back the amount of pseudoephedrine companies can import.

Mexican officials have told the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that they have reduced their import quota 30 percent this year. That reduction, U.S. officials say, applies to 2004 import levels.

That reduction still leaves traffickers an ample surplus to obtain the pseudoephedrine they need to make meth.

The newspaper's analysis, drawn from demographic data and independent market research, offers the first publicly available estimate of how much cold medicine Mexico legitimately needs. The analysis suggests that Mexico's legitimate demand is between 90 and 130 tons -- roughly 100 tons less than the country imported last year.


This article runs 10 pages long - if you feel like reading. Drug cartels will be all over America if we don't stop them.

"America's meth crisis is now rooted in Mexico"

Well....what American Crisis Isn't rooted in that Toilet Bowl called Foxney Land?

Geee....I wonder if our Presidio knows?

Maybe I'll send him a telegram just in case, huh?

Do you think he would care?

Yeah...you're right I'll save my money and my trip to Western Union.

God Help Us.