U.S. authorities managed to intercept only a third of drug trafficking from Latin America, blaming the lack of resources for this result, said Wednesday the head of U.S. Army South. The data are based on American intelligence estimates for the supervision of ships and planes used in drug trafficking, General Douglas Fraser said to journalists. He acknowledged that a more precise estimate is difficult to provide. “Do we really have enough ships to intercept our targets?”, said the senior military official, immediately adding that “currently, no”.
Planes taking off from South America laden with drugs land especially in Honduras and Panama region, the general continued. Most drugs are later transported by ships and submarines to Central America and Mexico. Here, drugs are transferred and sent ashore to the United States, said Fraser. About 90% of the cocaine arriving in the Americas goes through Central America and Mexico. Mexico announced simply that Central American countries do not have air capabilities to intercept any planes loaded with drugs that land in their territory.
According to General Fraser, budgetary constraints in the United States is one of the causes of the problem, many U.S. Navy ships are too old and must be replaced. However, he adds, Central American countries are trying to invest more in the fight against drug trafficking. U.S. have provided ships in order to help ensure the security of their borders. In the annual report of the State Department on struggle against drugs, released Wednesday, the United States entered Argentina on the list of countries that practice money laundering. On this list, which includes 66 countries, there are also Afghanistan, China, Colombia, Israel, Britain and France. China is also criticized: “There are signs that it is becoming a hub for heroin in South-West Asia”, reads the document.
The report notes, moreover, that many experts have expressed concern over “increasing use of synthetic drugs, especially methamphetamine, and a number of drugs unknown so far”. State Department notes, however, some positive aspects, for example in Afghanistan. If this country “provides about 90% of world production of opium in the world”, some “improvements in infrastructure have enabled the creation of viable economic alternatives to poppy cultivation”. “In general, efforts in the fight against drugs have been positive” in 2001, in Afghanistan, the report says. But “this progress remains fragile”, warns the State Department, which noted that the progressive withdrawal of international forces in the country will require the Afghan authorities to become more involved in the fight against drug trafficking, “while many government officials are suspected to make profits from it”.
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