Source: Reuter

U.S. reports progress in world war on drugs

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuter) The international drug trade
suffered severe setbacks in 1996 but a new threat has arisen in
the form of ruthless multinational gangs supplying
methamphetamines, the U.S. government said Wednesday.
A government committee on the drug trade said in its annual
report that the greatest successes were against cocaine in
Colombia and the heroin trade in Burma.
``The (Colombianbased) Cali drug organizations continued to
experience major setbacks with the surrenders, arrests and death
of key members,'' the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said
in a statement, quoting the report by the National Narcotics
Intelligence Consumers Committee.
``The herointrafficking Shan United Army in the Far East
collapsed and Khun Sa, the world's most notorious longreigning
drug smuggler, was detained by Burmese central government
authorities,'' it added.
``Exceptional cooperation among international law
enforcement officers in 1996 resulted in successes that would
have been unthinkable just a few years ago,'' said DEA
administrator Thomas Constantine.
But he added: ``While overall progress occurred, key
indicators of drug production, trafficking and abuse suggested
that cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana remain
readily available throughout the United States,'' he added.
The statement said that methamphetamine, a powerful
stimulant, had overtaken cocaine as the favorite drug in some
parts of the United States.
``During 1996, the management of the burgeoning
methamphetamine trade in the Western Hemisphere was controlled
by violent drug gangs operating from Mexico,'' it said.
``These multinational gangs constitute a new threat.
Ruthless and violent..., they are poised to supply
methamphetamines and other drugs to the rest of the country. DEA
is responding by dedicating more agents and resources to
dismantling these groups,'' Constantine said.

The antitrafficking committee includes representatives of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence
Agency, the DEA, the Defense Department, the U.S. Coast Guard
and other government agencies.