Pubdate: Mon, 15 Aug 2005
Source: Brownsville Herald, The (TX)
Copyright: 2005 The Brownsville Herald
Contact: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/contact.php
Website: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1402
Author: Sergio Chapa
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH TRAFFIC PICKING UP AT LOCAL BORDER

"It's coming. Just wait till they find out it's cheaper than cocaine." -- 
Prison minister Drew Vail

BROWNSVILLE -- Local law enforcement officials report that the use of 
methamphetamines remains low in the Rio Grande Valley but some say the 
seeds have been sown for its consumption to grow.

The drug first appeared in California in the 1960s, but recent reports from 
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency show it has become a scourge to dozens of 
communities in northern Texas and the Midwest.

In the past two years, methamphetamines, or "meth," has appeared on the 
streets of East Coast cities and grown in popularity in dance clubs.

DEA figures also show that increasing amounts of the drug are produced in 
Mexico and smuggled into the United States.

In 2003, U.S. Customs agents seized 1,067 pounds of meth at Texas' 24 
international bridges. Federal court records show a growing share of that 
traffic as coming through Brownsville and South Texas.

In the past year, federal authorities have arrested or convicted five 
people for smuggling more than 56 pounds of methamphetamines through 
Cameron and Willacy counties.

The most recent arrests were those of two sisters from Houston who tried to 
smuggle 2.6 pounds of meth along with 42 pounds of cocaine and 21,000 pills 
of ecstasy through the Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates on July 17.

Despite the heavy traffic, Lt. Adrian Mascorro with the Brownsville Police 
Department's Special Investigations Unit said local arrests show that the 
drug is not being used or sold in the area at any significant levels.

Mascorro said the department's last meth arrest was reported more than five 
years ago. "He was from out of town and staying at a hotel," Mascorro said. 
"We believe he brought it with him and did not buy it here."

Although Brownsville police records show no arrests or seizures for meth 
since that incident, prison minister Drew Vail said the conditions are 
right for the drug to take root in the Rio Grande Valley.

Vail said area drug users have already developed a taste for hard drugs 
such as crack cocaine prompting a wave of burglaries and other crimes.

"It's coming," Vail said of methamphetamines. "Just wait till they find out 
it's cheaper than cocaine."

Street prices vary, but a DEA report show that the average wholesale price 
of meth is $20 a gram compared to $25 a gram for cocaine.

Others point to Mexico as an example of an area that was once only thought 
of as simply a transit point for illegal drugs, but has now become its own 
market.

Figures from Mexico's National Council Against Addictions (CONADIC) and the 
Secretary of Health show that 1.3 million Mexicans suffer from addiction to 
one or more illegal drugs.

Although methamphetamines consumption remains low in Mexico, the result of 
addiction to marijuana, cocaine, crack and heroin has been a growing number 
of petty and violent crimes as well as drug-related deaths.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said the Mexican government is barely 
beginning to recognize how corrosive drugs are to their society.

"Drugs are like salt water through machinery, it just corrodes," Garza said 
of Mexico's growing drug problem. "It affects your judicial systems, 
leadership, elected offices and police force."

Ray D'Alessio with the DEA's regional office in Houston said U.S. and 
Mexican authorities are working to stop the flow of methamphetamines from 
Mexico.

Other efforts to control meth production include the monitoring and 
regulation of its key ingredients such as pseudoephedrine, the active 
ingredient in most over-the-counter cold medications, on both sides of the 
border.

D'Alessio said stricter state laws regulating the sale of cold medications 
have prompted manufacturers in Texas and the United States to use other 
household substitutes such as disinfectants, lye, acetone and ammonia 
creating potentially more dangerous forms of the drug.

"The individual chemicals that go into making meth are toxic," D'Alessio 
said. "A user never knows what they're getting."
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