Marijuana is now the biggest source of income for Mexico's drug cartels and the US is committed to cracking down harder on traffickers, US drug czar John Walters said on Thursday.
"We're trying to increase the force with which we're attacking this problem," Walters said by telephone. "This is a focus because of the overlooked importance marijuana has in the violence."
Walters made the comments following a meeting with Mexican officials who called for the US to prosecute marijuana cases more zealously to reduce the amount of cash gangs can spend on guns.
Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora discussed the subject with Walters and US federal prosecutors from the border region on Thursday during a meeting in the Baja California resort of Los Cabos.
Walters said the US government is seeking additional resources to prosecute traffickers of marijuana, which now earns cartels about US$8.5 billion, or about 61 percent of their annual estimated income of US$13.8 billion.
Cocaine sales earn the cartels about US$3.9 billion and methamphetamine about US$1 billion, Walters said.
"While the criminal organizations that are a threat to both of our countries make a lot of money off of heroin and cocaine and methamphetamine, the vast majority of their money to buy guns, bribe, corrupt and destroy lives is from marijuana," said Walters, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Mexican officials have complained that US prosecutors often release small or mid-level traffickers caught with a few dozen kilograms of marijuana.
But Walters said there is no weight threshold for charges, and a desire to help bring an end to the bloody shootouts, assassinations and drug battles that have plagued Mexico could move US prosecutors to act more zealously.
"There are a lot of reasons when you have a case that gets declined," Walter said. "Maybe the evidence isn't quite as strong as it seemed .... sometimes people make a judgment call, and I think it's fair to say that if you had a broader look, maybe you wouldn't make the same call."
He added that the US is "looking at additional ways in which we can have a stronger prosecutorial response," including requests for more funding and personnel.
Since taking office in December 2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of soldiers and police to violence-plagued states to fight against the drug gangs.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS