Drug effort aims at maquiladora plants

MEXICO CITY U.S. and Mexican businesses will join forces to crack down on
drug trafficking at maquiladora plants on the U.S.Mexican border,the
U.S.Mexican Chamber of Commerce said Monday.

Maquiladoras are assembly plants on the Mexican side of the border that
make products mostly for the U.S. market. They provide needed jobs for
Mexicans and cheap labor for international companies.

But some of the plants are filling U.S.bound trucks with cocaine and
marijuana, the chamber said.

"This is a privatesector program, initiated by the private sector with
both governments, to help companies on the maquiladora border combat
drugs," the president of the chamber, Albert Zapanta, told reporters.

He said many maquiladora companies are unaware their plants and trucks were
being used to traffic in drugs. The chamber will provide a twoday training
course for maquiladora managers to help them root our offenders, Zapanta
said.