Pubdate: Sun, 01 Jan 2012 Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Copyright: 2012 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC. Contact: http://www.timesdispatch.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365 Note: Times-Dispatch Staff via Associated Press reports GUATEMALA NEW CENTER FOR METH PRODUCTION MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel appears to be extending its massive production of methamphetamine into neighboring Guatemala, as hundreds of tons of precursor chemicals stream into the Central American nation. While Mexico is usually estimated to be the main supplier of meth used in the United States, seizure data suggest that Guatemala could in fact be producing as much or more. That data, along with interviews with U.S. and Guatemalan officials, also indicate that Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is taking advantage of Guatemala's remote, isolated mountains and an alliance with a key Guatemalan trafficker to make the Central American nation a new international meth production base. Mexican authorities seized 675 tons of a key precursor chemical in December alone, and all of it was heading for Guatemala. Officials in Guatemala have seized 7,847 barrels of precursors in 2011, equivalent to about 1,600 tons and far more than Mexico's total seizures of 1,200 tons for the year. The Guatemala-bound chemical seized in Mexico, methylamine, can yield its weight in uncut meth, according to Steve Preisler, an industrial chemist called the father of modern meth-making. That means the total amount seized in or heading to Guatemala could theoretically produce more than a billion 1-gram doses of pure meth, and billions more if cut to street-level purity. Authorities say it's not entirely clear where Sinaloa could sell thousands of tons of methamphetamine if it produced that much. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in its 2011 World Report that total meth seizures worldwide amounted to 65 tons. Guatemalan Interior Minister Carlos Menocal said the Mexican cartel has prepared its operations by doing business with a gang in his country led by Juan Alberto Ortiz Lopez, nicknamed "Chamale," who, before his arrest in March, was identified by the United States as the most important trafficker in Guatemala. "What we have found is that Chamale has links to the Sinaloa cartel," Menocal said. Those links include coordinating the processing or "cooking" of meth, he said. "An analysis by Guatemala's intelligence indicates the laboratories were managed by Mexicans," Menocal said. "They come to oversee the drug production process; Mexican chemists came to establish the formulas and local people talk about Mexicans who came and went, doing this work." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D