June 27, 2007
Mexicans End Colombian Monopoly in Cocaine Smuggling: UN By Sahil Makkar
New Delhi
Well-organised drug syndicates in Mexico have left behind their
rivals from Colombia in cocaine peddling, says a UN report.
"Colombian groups have lost their monopoly over cocaine trafficking
altogether, and currently most of the drugs reportedly enter the US
in the hands of Mexican organised crime groups," says the annual
report on global drug trafficking and abuse issued by the UN Office
on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
According to UNODC, over the past two decades, the Mexican groups,
which had previously been used instrumentally by the Colombians,
have increasingly taken control of the US market.
"This transfer of responsibilities has not been complete, however,
and Colombian groups as well as their Dominican associates remain
prominent in the wholesale and retail trades in the northeast part
of the US. Presently, Mexico is the premier gateway for cocaine
entering the US," the report says.
According to the US government, roughly 90 percent of the cocaine
entering the country transits through Mexico and three quarters of
the cocaine seized entering the US is apprehended along the land
border with Mexico, particularly the border with Texas.
"At least 1,400 drug-related murders occurred in Mexico in 2006,
mostly along the border with the US, with some sources placing the
number as high as 2,500," the report notes.
It says that like the Colombian organisations, Mexican criminal
syndicates often have a dynastic character, involving multiple
family members at the top of the command structure.
The report also shows that due to the highly competitive and violent
nature of Mexican criminal syndicates, it is extremely difficult for
foreigners to operate in this market. Ninety-eight percent of those
arrested for drug trafficking in 2004 were Mexican nationals.
However, the report says most of the world's cocaine still moves
from or through Colombia and the major chunk is consumed in the US.
In a coca cultivation survey carried out in 2005, the UNODC and the
government of Colombia found that only one third of the farmers were
just cultivators - the rest were involved in processing the plant
into drugs, up to the point of creating cocaine base.
"The global cocaine production was 1,008 metric tonnes (mt) in 2004,
of which 640 mt was produced in Colombia, 270 mt in Peru and 98 mt
in Bolivia," the report says. "This indicates high levels of control
over the cocaine supply. As is the case in many
agriculture-exporting countries, export stock is not widely consumed
locally."
Mexican groups have also extended their reach and have expanded
presence in producer countries, particularly in Peru.
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