Seizures: Panama up, Mexico down
Posted: 14 Apr 2011 06:32 AM PDT
Why did Panama seize five times more cocaine than Mexico did last year?
One savvy European anti-narcotics official pointed this out to me earlier this week. Panama last year confiscated 49.5 metric tons of cocaine last year, according to the State Department’s annual narcotics control report.
For its part, Mexico seized only 9.4 metric tons, according to the report.
So what gives? Are Panama’s drug cops particularly good? Are Mexico’s inept? Or could it be because drug cartels are sending less cocaine through Mexico?
The latter is what Antonio Luigi Mazzitelli of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime suggested to me. Mazzitelli oversees Mexico and Central America. He says intra-cartel violence has made smuggling through Mexico increasingly risky. So the Mexican cartels with tentacles into the supply chain in the Andes are finding ways to bring it to Central America, then bypass Mexico.
Posted: 14 Apr 2011 06:32 AM PDT
Why did Panama seize five times more cocaine than Mexico did last year?
One savvy European anti-narcotics official pointed this out to me earlier this week. Panama last year confiscated 49.5 metric tons of cocaine last year, according to the State Department’s annual narcotics control report.
For its part, Mexico seized only 9.4 metric tons, according to the report.
So what gives? Are Panama’s drug cops particularly good? Are Mexico’s inept? Or could it be because drug cartels are sending less cocaine through Mexico?
The latter is what Antonio Luigi Mazzitelli of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime suggested to me. Mazzitelli oversees Mexico and Central America. He says intra-cartel violence has made smuggling through Mexico increasingly risky. So the Mexican cartels with tentacles into the supply chain in the Andes are finding ways to bring it to Central America, then bypass Mexico.
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