COCAINE FLOW TO 26 CITIES CURBED

Mexico crackdown gets credit by DEA

Tough action by Mexico is driving down the cocaine supply in 26 U.S.
cities, a recently declassified Drug Enforcement Administration
analysis shows, an encouraging drop in narcotics crossing the border
that law enforcement officials hope will continue.

As evidence of the short supply, prices have spiked sharply and
purity has decreased since September 2006, says the analysis, which
previously had not been made public. A gram of pure cocaine sold for
about $118.70 in the spring, a 29% increase from last fall. Purity
decreases when dealers add other ingredients, such as baby formula
and sugar, to stretch the supply.

Cocaine prices are at their highest since the DEA began calculating
the price and purity data in April 2005, when a pure gram of cocaine
sold for $93.63.

"The law enforcement community and intelligence community is asking,
'How did this work?' and 'How do we keep it going?' " says John
Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy. "Less cocaine, less crack means fewer victims of drugs."

About 2.5% of the U.S. population reports using cocaine in the past
year; about 2 million people report being current users, the 2006
National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows. More than half a
million people are arrested annually for crimes involving cocaine or
heroin -- 557,600 in 2005, according to the most recent data from the
FBI's Uniform Crime Reports.

Police and local officials in some cities, such as Cleveland and
Nashville, say they have noticed a cocaine decrease in their
neighborhoods as well.

"There has not been as much cocaine on the streets of Nashville this
year as we have seen in prior times," Nashville Police spokesman Don
Aaron says.

DEA intelligence agents credit a crackdown in Mexico by President
Felipe Calderon, who sent 3,000 troops to corral two drug cartels
engaged in a violent turf war.

"This new Calderon government is really taking a tough stance, and
it's really taking its toll on the trafficking organizations," says
Tony Placido, the DEA's intelligence chief. About 90% of cocaine
reaching the USA comes via Mexico.

"We had clear information from informants and from telecommunications
intercepts that Mexico was the problem" for drug traffickers, Placido says.

DEA agents in more than 30 cities have reported anomalies in their
drug markets.

As the pattern emerged in March, DEA analysts began checking
thousands of samples of seized cocaine. They found a marked drop in
supply in the major cities that act as distribution centers for smaller cities.

In Cleveland, police noted a contraction in drug markets in January.
Homicides are up as local drug organizations vie for the shrinking
cocaine supply, says Mayor Frank Jackson, who lauds a six-city,
federally led task force for cracking down on local traffickers.

"It does create more violence, but that's a short-term thing,"
Jackson says. "That's the natural outcome of 20 years of crack
cocaine and 30 years of powder."

He says neighborhoods will be able to rebuild if decreases in
availability continue. "Now we have an opportunity, if we continue
this interdiction, to put in some economic development, some
treatment, some prevention, that will turn things around," Jackson
says. "Interdiction isn't the cure-all. The police cannot solve this
problem. It's one leg on the stool."