DATE=2/10/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=MEXICO DRUGS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-259039
BYLINE=GREG FLAKUS
DATELINE=MEXICO CITY
CONTENT=



VOICED AT=

INTRO:  The director of the US Office of National Drug 
Control Policy, retired General Barry McCaffrey, 
wrapped up his two-day visit to Mexico on Thursday, 
after inspecting Mexican anti-smuggling operations 
along the nation's southern border.  As VOA's Greg 
Flakus reports from Mexico City, the US drug policy 
chief warned that narcotics are now flowing again 
through some old routes.


TEXT:   On Thursday, Mexican officials showed General 
McCaffrey how they are using new x-ray devices at 
border crossings from Guatemala and Belize to search 
for illicit drug shipments coming up from Central 
America.  But as Mexicans succeed in their efforts, 
General McCaffrey says the drug smugglers are shifting 
at least some of their operations elsewhere, including 
their old smuggling routes in the Caribbean.

He says there is evidence of more drugs passing 
through Haiti,the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.  The 
retired four-star general says that about 55 percent 
of all the cocaine consumed in the United States still 
comes through what he calls the Mexico corridor.  
Increased enforcement efforts in the Caribbean in the 
1980's caused smugglers to shift as much as two thirds 
of their cocaine shipments to Mexico. Now, General 
McCaffrey says smugglers are returning to some of the 
old Caribbean routes.  

The US drug policy director also sees the danger of 
more drug smuggling activity in Panama since the 
United States military pulled out of that country late 
last year in fulfillment of the 1977 Panama Canal 
Treaties.

General McCaffrey says the drug smuggling 
organizations are very quick to take advantage of such 
openings.  An effort to negotiate an agreement with 
Panama to maintain an anti-drug operation there failed 
last year.  Panama's President Mireya Moscoso, who 
assumed office in September, has ruled out the return 
of any kind of US military presence in her country.  
Panama borders Colombia, which is the source of 80 
percent of the world's cocaine and the location of 
some of the most powerful drug cartels.

In regard to Mexico, General McCaffrey says there has 
been excellent cooperation in the fight against 
smugglers.  He says Mexican officials realize the 
grave threat to their nation posed by powerful 
criminal organizations and the threat to their society 
posed by drugs.  The general says the three countries 
in the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico, 
The United States and Canada, are all-- in his words-- 
"in the same boat."  He says they must work together 
to confront the problem of drugs that threatens them 
all.  (Signed)


NEB/PT







10-Feb-2000 19:58 PM EDT (11-Feb-2000 0058 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.