PRICE OF COCAINE RISES

Crackdown Working

NEW YORK - The price of cocaine has risen sharply in 37 cities across
the United States since March, suggesting the U.S. and Mexico have
made major strides in crimping the flow of drugs over the southern
border, the top White House official in charge of anti-drug efforts
said Tuesday.

John Walters said Mexico's crackdown on drug cartels since December
and the extradition of several high-level cartel leaders to the U.S.
were the biggest factors in what he described as an unprecedented drop
in the supply of cocaine and methamphetamine on American streets.

"After 25 years of cocaine coming into the United States, there has
never been the kind of disruption of this magnitude for this long," he
said after a news conference in San Diego.