ANTI-DRUG FIGHT FUELS VIOLENCE, REPORT SAYS

About 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States enters
through Mexico, the U.S. government said Friday.

The finding was contained in the U.S. International Narcotics Control
Strategy Report. Authors of the report commended Mexico for
unprecedented cooperation with the United States in the battle
against drug traffickers. High levels of violence, though, may be
part of the cost of the progress.

"The increase in violence may be due to the success of President
(Felipe) Calderon's aggressive anti-crime campaign, which has broadly
deployed the military in searches and regional security plans, while
more effectively using tools such as extraditions," the report said.

"This has led to the arrest of important cartel leaders and narrowed
the operating space of criminal gangs, who are now fighting among
themselves for now-diminishing profits."

Under the Foreign Assistance Act, the State Department is required to
prepare an annual report for Congress on the efforts of countries to
attack all aspects of the international drug trade, including money laundering.

The report said corruption continues to present a challenge to
Calderon's efforts to rein in the drug cartels.

"All this progress, however, comes against a backdrop of continuing
high levels of corruption and turmoil within Mexico's security and
judicial bodies," the report said. "Corruption throughout Mexico's
public institutions remains a key impediment to successfully
curtailing the power of the drug cartels."

"They are confronting each other and the result is, unfortunately, a
significant increase in violence," David Johnson, assistant secretary
of state for international narcotics and law enforcement, told The
Associated Press. "This is a serious challenge for both the
government of Mexico and the United States."

George W. Grayson, a senior scholar for the Foreign Policy Research
Institute, said in an interview that conditions in Mexico do not
inspire optimism.

"The crackdown has had little effect on cocaine consumption in the
United States, even as the price for cocaine has fluctuated between
$96 and $119 an ounce, and its purity has declined by 11 percent,"
Grayson said. "Cocaine use has dropped slightly, but it's because
users are switching to synthetic drugs, like methamphetamine, and not
because of the crackdown."

The report, which tries to provide a global view of the illicit drug
trade, said Afghanistan, where U.S. soldiers are deployed, is the
world's largest producer of opium poppy, the plant used to make
heroin. Other highlights of the report included:

As of November 2008, Mexican law enforcement had seized 39,437 illegal weapons.

Weapons purchased or stolen in the United States accounted for 95
percent of Mexico's drug-related deaths.

Violence has spilled over as evidenced by an increase in contract
killings and kidnappings in the United States.

Mexico's navy last year seized a self-propelled submarine off the
Pacific Coast with 5.6 metric tons of cocaine.

The United States, Mexico, Afghanistan, Australia, China, Germany,
France, Colombia, Israel and Kenya were listed as countries of
primary concern for money laundering.