MEXICAN HEROIN ON THE RISE

It's Replacing Cocaine As The Choice Of Smugglers, Border Authorities Say

MEXICO CITY - Heroin is a growing concern along the porous U.S.-Mexico
border, where cocaine has been dominant.

Authorities say they are discovering larger and larger shipments - a trend
indicating that Mexican drug cartels are increasingly confident of their
ability to get the highly priced heroin past border points.

A joint U.S.-Mexico investigation, recently disclosed, resulted in the
seizure of 782 pounds of heroin, a quantity that some law-enforcement
officials believe indicates Mexican traffickers are preparing to challenge
Colombian gangs that distribute on the U.S. East Coast.

"Seven hundred pounds of heroin is a lot of heroin," said a U.S. official
in Mexico who participated in Operation Landslide, as the U.S.-Mexico
investigation was dubbed.

Operation Landslide resulted in 42 arrests and broke up an alleged
heroin-distribution ring that trafficked from the Mexican states of
Michoacan and Baja California to 37 U.S. cities, ranging from San Jose,
Calif., to St. Louis. The core distribution cells were in Los Angeles, San
Francisco and San Jose.

Operation Landslide began almost three years ago with the seizure of more
than 253 pounds of heroin at the southwest border with Mexico. Over the
course of the probe, there were other big seizures - 100 pounds of heroin
in San Luis, Ariz.; 59 pounds in Laredo, Texas; and 92 pounds in Del Rio,
Texas, among others.

"We've seized more. Does that mean more is coming across? Probably. But
what is clear is the loads are larger from Mexico and the traffickers are
pretty bold," said Dean Boyd, a spokesman at Customs Service headquarters
in Washington.

"These guys could be characterized as very audacious," Boyd said.

The volumes are even more troubling in light of a similar action last year
called Operation Tar Pit. That operation, unveiled June 15, 2000, broke a
heroin ring in the state of Nayarit and documented that Mexican drug
organizations were stepping up heroin smuggling to new markets such as
Detroit, where Colombians have traditionally dominated. Previously, Mexican
cartels had seldom sold heroin east of the Mississippi River.

Agents also discovered last year that Mexican gangs had improved the purity
of their product, which requires a sophisticated transformation from poppy
plant to opium gum to heroin. And purity equals profit. A September report
from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said lower-grade brown or
black-tar heroin from Mexico sells for $13,000 to $75,000 a kilogram (2.2
pounds). In comparison, Asian heroin of higher purity sells for $40,000 to
$190,000 per kilogram, and Colombian heroin, generally the purest on the
drug market, sells for $50,000 to $200,000.

There is evidence that Mexican heroin gangs are striving to match the
efficiency of their Colombian rivals. A U.S. official said authorities had
spotted Colombian "chemists," who prepare heroin, working with the Mexicans
"to the point where they can compete against southeast and southwest Asia
and Colombia in terms of white heroin."