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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2007 
Colombia, Mexico to Work More Closely on Drug Gangs
 Reuters
| | Policemen stand guard during an anti-narcotics operation in the Cuautepec Barrio Alto district in Mexico City April 10, 2007. Mexico and Colombia will work more closely to hunt down cartels shifting drugs like cocaine between the two countries, Colombia's top drugs official said in an interview published on Wednesday. (Daniel Aguilar/Reuters) |
Mexico and Colombia will work more closely to hunt down cartels shifting drugs like cocaine between the two countries, Colombia's top drugs official said in an interview published on Wednesday.
Jorge Baron, head of Colombia's anti-narcotics police, said on a visit to the southeastern Mexican state of Campeche that police and prosecutors were looking at ways to pool information and target links between gangs in the two countries.
"We have to move immediately from having the information about the drug gangs' operations to making it available to the authorities so that the final result of the investigation, in whichever country is affected, will be a sentence and swift punishment," Baron told Mexico's El Universal paper.
Violent Mexican cartels buy cocaine from Colombian traffickers and then send it across the U.S. border. The Mexicans are playing an increasing role in the supply chain from South America to U.S. streets, according to U.S. anti-drug officials.
Baron said Mexico and Colombia needed to cooperate in drug crime investigations and judicial procedures.
He warned of a burgeoning alliance between Mexican drug cartels and Colombia's left-wing FARC rebels, who are often funded by drug money.
The Colombian official was in Mexico with President Alvaro Uribe, who met Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Central American leaders on Tuesday to discuss a new oil refinery and other regional energy projects.
With drug-related killings in Mexico topping 2,000 last year, Calderon has made fighting drug cartels his top priority since taking office in December, sending thousands of troops and federal police to areas where drug gangs are strong. |
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