Legal Research

Methamphetamine Pours into U.S. From Mexico; $30 Million Worth is Seized

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime and Justice News, April 30, 2008.

"A U.S. crackdown on domestic methamphetamine labs has created opportunities for Mexican drug cartels and their "superlabs" to fill the void, report McClatchy Newspapers. Law enforcement agencies consider meth produced in Mexico to be the greatest drug menace in the Western U.S. and a growing concern across the southeast and mid-Atlantic states. Mexican drug gangs produce 80 percent of the meth consumed in the U.S.; Mexican officials say Mexican manufacturers have become adept at meeting shifting demands of U.S. addicts. Said Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora: 'You are getting new entrants into the market that are essentially not choosing cocaine any more, but meth.' " 

"In the first three weeks of April, U.S. officials confiscated more than $30 million worth of methamphetamine destined for distribution points in California, Washington, Dallas, Kansas City, and Atlanta. Last year, at the six border crossings from Mexico into California, federal agents stopped more than 2,000 pounds of methamphetamine, worth $220 million on the street. Authorities say the ease with which meth can be manufactured in clandestine labs from available materials allows gangs to take advantage of the growing demand for the drug."

McClatchy Newspapers

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on April 30, 2008 (boomark / email).