HEROIN TRAFFIC INDICATES MEXICAN CARTELS EXPANDING

Trade Challenges Colombians

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

In place of the relatively small volumes of heroin moved across the border,
traditionally in packets under 5 pounds, authorities say they are
discovering larger and larger shipments -- a trend that indicates that drug
smugglers are increasingly cocky about their ability to get the highly
priced heroin past border points.

Mexican drug cartels already specialized in cocaine and marijuana are
extending into heroin trafficking.

RING BROKEN UP

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 who 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, including San Jose, Calif., and St.
Louis, Mo. The core distribution cells were in Los Angeles, San Francisco
and San Jose.

Operation Landslide began almost three years ago with a suspicious seizure
of more than 253 pounds of heroin at the southwest border with Mexico, an
extraordinarily large volume. 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 U.S. Customs Service
headquarters in Washington. He added, ``These guys could be characterized
as very audacious.''

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 like
Detroit, where Colombians have traditionally dominated.

Previously, the Mexican cartels had seldom sold heroin east of the
Mississippi River, while Colombians dominated East Coast sales.

PURITY, PROFITS

Agents also discovered last year that Mexican gangs had improved the purity
of their product, which requires a sophisticated transformation from a
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) while Asian heroin of higher purity sells for $40,000
to $190,000 per kilo and Colombian heroin, the purest on the drug market,
sells for $50,000 to $200,000 per kilogram.

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