2 Nations Stymied in Efforts to Shut Off Flow : Mexico a Funnel for U.S.-Bound Cocaine

For an alleged cocaine smuggler charged with murdering a Mexican policeman, Jose Contreras Subias lived pretty well in Tijuana’s municipal prison.

According to U.S. sources, he occupied an entire floor of the prison, made cocaine deals freely and kept a bank account in nearby La Mesa de Otay.

When he escaped Oct. 25, according to Mexican authorities, he left in a prison van, under police escort. It was three days before anyone outside the prison knew that he had escaped.

Seven guards and the warden have been charged with helping Contreras Subias escape. According to press reports, the guards were paid $14,000 each, the warden $30,000.

The case is another frustrating setback in the effort by Mexican and American officials to end Mexico’s role as a funnel through which a flood of cocaine pours into the United States.

20 Tons From S. America

U.S. Embassy officials here estimate that about 20 tons of cocaine from South America were smuggled through Mexico into the United States last year. This accounted for about 20% of the drug sold in the United States, and it made Mexico the top cocaine transshipment point for the U.S. market.

The physical difficulties of stemming the flow are formidable. For one thing, the Mexican-U.S. border is about 2,000 miles long. Corruption, danger and jurisdictional squabbles between the two countries combine to further frustrate the effort.

Recent Mexican attempts to obstruct the cocaine traffic, with U.S. support, have produced mixed results.

Last spring, important cocaine traffickers were jailed--Contreras Subias among them--after Enrique S. Camarena, an American narcotics agent, was tortured and killed. The gangs appeared to be in disarray, and cocaine shipments declined, according to embassy officials.

Back to Previous Volume

Since then, however, the smugglers have regrouped, traffic is back to its previous volume--and the level continues to rise.

Cocaine is the latest addition to Mexico’s wide range of smuggled illicit drugs, joining marijuana, heroin and pills of all sorts. Marijuana and the opium poppy, the source of heroin, are both grown in Mexico; coca, the source of cocaine, is not. Partially successful campaigns to destroy marijuana and opium poppy crops have converted the trade in South American cocaine into a major alternative to other drug activities here.

According to a recent report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the traffic “began as a byproduct of the opium and marijuana eradication efforts.” The report goes on to say that smugglers from Latin America were forced to look for new routes to the United States as anti-cocaine campaigns in the Caribbean made it riskier to ship by air and sea into the American Southeast.

Advantages for Smugglers

Mexico offers plenty of advantages for smugglers--in the air and on the ground. It is estimated that there are 2,400 airstrips in the country, and the long border, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific, is all but impossible to seal.

Smuggling of goods across the border is nothing new. Everything from immigrants to money goes north, while appliances and other consumer goods flow south.

As in all the smuggling activity, bribery--what Mexicans call la mordida, “the little bite”--is an integral factor. With cocaine, the bite is big. Cocaine sells for between $35,000 and $50,000 a kilogram (2.2 pounds) wholesale in the Los Angeles area.

U.S. observers consider that widespread corruption hampers the effort to cut off the flow of drugs from Mexico. As a recent report of the House Foreign Relations Committee put it, “It is clear that corruption is the single biggest obstacle to effective anti-narcotics efforts in Mexico.”

Aura of Keystone Kops

The apparent cooperation between corrupt officials and drug traffickers has produced incidents reminiscent of the Keystone Kops.

After Camarena’s slaying, U.S. officials here asked the Mexican police to detain Rafael Caro Quintero, a known figure in the narcotics traffic. Caro Quintero was sighted at the Guadalajara airport, guarded by his own men and by local police, and his plane took off without incident. Later, Caro Quintero was picked up in Costa Rica and deported to Mexico along with several collaborators, among them Contreras Subias.

Mexican authorities bristle at charges of corruption and throw the accusation back at U.S. officials. “How is it that the drugs so easily cross the border?” a Mexican drug agent asked rhetorically. “There must be corruption on the other side.”

Mexican authorities point with painful pride to the number of their narcotics agents and soldiers killed in various anti-drug campaigns--more than 100 in the last year alone.

Criticism Is Tempered

Mexico’s interest in controlling drugs has varied over the years. At first, U.S officials were disappointed with the effort put forth by the administration of President Miguel de la Madrid, but recent shake-ups in the attorney general’s office and raids spearheaded by the armed forces and federal police have tempered the criticism.

Mexico’s concern, prompted in part by U.S. pressure, also reflects a domestic problem. Drug use among young Mexicans is on the rise, although cocaine is a relatively minor factor compared with marijuana and pills.

Also, the wealth and power of drug runners is impinging on government influence in some parts of the country. The bald use of police as security guards by drug operators, the increasing investment of drug money in legitimate businesses, the embarrassment of having large drug plantations under the nose of local officials--all this has led to concern about the emergence of a narcotics state within a state.

Stern Official Words

“In Mexico, there is no force stronger than the state, and there is no place where the state will permit drug traffickers to exercise control,” Jesus Sam Lopez, head of the Mexican Narcotics Control Bureau, told a reporter in an interview last spring.

U.S. pressure on the Mexican government takes several forms and, in some instances, has wounded Mexico’s nationalistic pride. After the Camarena killing, U.S. Customs inspectors slowed all border movement in an effort to prod Mexico into action.