Mexico cornering the U.S. meth market

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Mexico is quickly becoming the world's leading source of the illicit drug methamphetamine, U.S. law enforcement officials say.

Agents told The Washington Post that Mexico's notorious trafficking cartels have been cranking up their speed production by importing the cold medicines and other raw materials it needs from China, India and other countries.

"Mexico-based trafficking groups have shown tremendous resilience in getting around the precursor chemical prohibitions and controls," said Alex Dominguez, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "They are currently pursuing very sophisticated smuggling techniques."

The DEA says that while the sale of ephedrine is tightly regulated in the United States and Mexico, it is freely available in other countries and is smuggled into Mexico through the use of shell companies and falsified shipping documents.

"If there are 2,000 cargo containers a day and you can manage to get in just one or two containers with narcotics, that's a lot. That is tons," a Mexican naval officer told the Post.

The materials are then turned into meth in the many labs that have sprung along the border and smuggled into the United States along with cocaine, marijuana and other drugs.