Mexico Helps Lead Multinational Drug Crackdown

For the second time in a year, Mexico has joined almost a dozen Central and South American nations in an international counter-narcotics blitz--cracking down on land, air and sea routes between Colombia and the southern U.S. border--to intercept an annual pre-Christmas rush of tons of cocaine and marijuana headed for the United States.

Mexican law enforcement officials confirmed here Friday that Mexico and 11 other countries from Bolivia to Belize are sharing intelligence in an operation that began Nov. 4. The effort has netted nearly 2 tons of cocaine, 45 tons of marijuana, 360 suspected drug traffickers, 120 weapons, four boats and an executive jet. U.S. anti-drug agencies are helping to coordinate the operation.

The largest single seizure came after a predawn air chase over the Mexican state of Sinaloa on Thursday, when Mexican drug agents scrambled five airplanes and a helicopter to force down a jet that was tracked by international radar from Cali, Colombia, into Mexican airspace. It was carrying 1 1/2 tons of cocaine.

The executive aircraft--converted to carry drug cargo--bore no tail markings; its pilot and crew escaped before Mexican agents could reach the site.

But Mexican Atty. Gen. Antonio Lozano Gracia indicated Friday that a continuing investigation may well link the craft to the powerful Colombian and Mexican drug cartels.

*

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says those drug mafias use Mexico as a transit route to supply up to 75% of the cocaine sold in the United States.

“This operation was a great success,” Lozano said of Thursday’s seizure. “The ability to react [quickly] was fundamental.”

Mexican officials said their fast reaction resulted directly from the multinational operation: The jet was tracked by radars in several countries, including the United States, from the moment it took off until Mexico intercepted it.

In official documents explaining the operation, dubbed “Unidos II,” the Mexican government said it took the initiative to plan and execute the latest campaign because “the battle against narcotics trafficking is the responsibility of all countries--those that are used to produce and traffic drugs and those that consume them.”

This operation is similar to a 10-day multinational crackdown a year ago that U.S. officials proclaimed “an unprecedented success.”

Counter-narcotics officials said then that their blitz was planned for November because the drug cartels try to produce and distribute narcotics stockpiles before they cut back at year’s end.

“The trafficking organizations tend to wind down and go home for the holidays,” one U.S. official said. “But they try to flood the market first so everyone can have a white Christmas.”

Officials in the United States called last year’s crackdown by Mexico and all seven Central American nations the biggest multinational anti-narcotics operation in history.

*

This year the operation was expanded to include the South American nations of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru--the world’s principal cocaine producers.

But Mexico, as the main transport route between the producers and the U.S. market, clearly made the largest contribution to the operation.

The attorney general’s office, which is coordinating the effort, said the forces in Unidos II included the Mexican army, navy and air force; federal highway and port police nationwide; and state law enforcement officials in one-third of Mexico.

A spokesman added that the operation, which was scheduled to end last Wednesday, continues.