Nearly 10,000 tonnes of drugs arrive in US from Mexico each year

Sep 20, 2007, 21:34 GMT

Washington - Close to 10,000 tonnes of illegal drugs make it to the United States from Mexico each year, according to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).

In a 46-page report released to the public Thursday, GAO estimated that 9,400 tonnes of marijuana, 275 tonnes of cocaine and 19 tonnes of heroin cross the Mexican border into the United States each year, according to estimates by the GAO, the investigative arm of US Congress.

It said Mexico serves as the major conduit for South American illegal drugs, trans-shipping two-thirds of the the continent's US- bound cocaine in 2000 and 90 per cent in 2004 and 2005.

The agency noted that there are no figures on methamphetamines, but the amount of such drugs seized annually has increased five-fold between 2000 and 2006, from 500 kilogrammes to 2,700 kilogrammes, indicating 'a dramatic rise in supply.'

Controls worked to help the authorities seize 2,900 tonnes of marijuana, 36 tonnes of cocaine and 1 tonne of heroine.

According to the report, Mexican authorities have improved in the fight against drug trafficking, although there remains room for improvement in cooperation.

'Corruption persists within the Mexican government and challenges Mexico's efforts to curb drug production and trafficking,' the document says. 'Moreover, Mexican drug trafficking organizations operate with relative impunity along the US border and in other parts of Mexico, and have expanded their illicit business to almost every region of the United States.'

Since 2000, the United States invested 397 million dollars to support Mexico's anti-narcotics efforts, leading to an increase in the number of extraditions, to the training of many Mexican agents by US experts in the US, and to a strengthening of controls over chemicals to produce methamphetamines.

The report, however, criticizes that US law enforcement officers cannot 'board Mexican-flagged vessels suspected of transporting illicit drugs on the high seas,' that aerial monitoring on the border was suspended, that Vietnam-era helicopters used are 'expensive and difficult to maintain' and that a border surveillance programme was cut short for lack of funds.

The GAO report was made public shortly before the announcement of a much-anticipated plan for anti-narcotics cooperation between the United States and Mexico.

Presidents George W Bush, of the United States, and Felipe Calderon, of Mexico, discussed the matter at the North American Leaders Summit last month in Canada and lower-level talks are ongoing, although no further details have been revealed.