WASHINGTON, March 8 (UPI) -- Guatemala has made considerable strides in cracking down on drug crime even though extradition remains a problem, the U.S. State Department said Thursday.
Questioned about the dearth of extraditions of drug criminals from Guatemala to the United States, the department stated that the country "has made substantial progress in restructuring counter-narcotics police functions, passed an organized crime control act that will permit wiretapping, and continued opium poppy eradication efforts."
Nevertheless, it pointed out that cocaine traffic from the country remains of concern to the United States. In addition, the department noted that last year, a Guatemalan citizen was extradited to the United States on a narcotics-related murder.
The extradition treaty between the two countries dates from 1903, and in 1940, narcotics crimes were added to the list of extraditable offenses. Yet "the required legal proceedings in any extradition case can make the process lengthy," the State Department said.
