DRUG CASH: MAKE IT DIFFICULT TO SPEND

Mexico President Felipe Calderon has another plan to help thwart narco
trafficking, and the country's lawmakers should back him up.

Calderon wants a limit on big-ticket cash purchases to 100,000 pesos
as a way of stopping money laundering. That's about $8,000 in U.S.
currency.

In June, the government announced a cap on the amount of U.S. currency
that can be deposited or exchanged in Mexican banks.

Both moves are necessary. It's estimated that between $19 billion and
$29 billion in cash is smuggled from the U.S. into the hands of drug
cartels in Mexico.

By stricter controls on using cash, it will be more difficult for
cartels to spend their ill-gotten money.

And it will make it more difficult for drug money to flow into the
legitimate Mexican economy and come out as assets for the cartels --
laundered money.

Examples given in a Los Angeles Times report: The cartels have been
paying cash for such big-ticket items as real estate, car dealerships,
private aircraft, luxury resorts and for setting up legitimate
business operations.

The move to cap the amount of cash deposits into banks was not met
with criticism in June. It is noted that only a small fraction of
Mexico's legitimate businesspersons deal in cash. And the cap for
business transactions was higher than for personal
transactions.

When Calderon launched his physical war on the country's drug cartels
in 2006 he was lauded. But the cartels have been able to use their
vast financial resources to fight back. They've hired their own army
and they've purchased weapons and ammunition. It's been a bloody war,
mostly cartel infighting, and there have been more than 28,000 murders
throughout the country. Calderon says more than 90 percent of persons
killed were involved in crime.

But the physical war is not being won by the government, which is
looked upon as either too weak or, some say, having too many elected
officials on the drug lords' payrolls.

The world will be watching to see if there's any opposition to
Calderon's latest maneuver in Mexico's congress.

The new law on cash deposits is a good strike against narco money
being laundered through banks. Now there should be no legitimate
reason for Mexico's lawmakers to scuttle an even better Calderon plan
that would make it much more difficult for drug cartels to spend their
ill-gotten money, thus hiding their personal wealth in the country's
economy.