News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2003

Arrests Reveal Increased Colombian Presence in Mexico's Drug Industry

MAY 9--An article in today's Washington Post discusses recent reports by Mexican and U.S. officials of increasing numbers of Colombian traffickers coming to Mexico. The Colombian traffickers are working to reestablish connections disrupted by the Mexican government's arrests of the country's most powerful drug barons. Those arrests have caused chaos in cocaine trafficking networks from the U.S. border to laboratories in South American jungles and have drawn powerful Colombian traffickers to Mexico to make sure supply routes stay open.

Roger Guevara, Chief of Operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said the DEA has noticed the increased Colombian presence in Mexico. He said that because of President Vicente Fox's successful disruption of drug cartels from Tijuana to the Gulf of Mexico, "the Colombians have been forced to establish new contacts in Mexico to oversee the importation of illicit drug shipments to the United States." Michael S. Vigil said, "The Colombians are the masters of the universe in terms of violence and intimidation, and they have educated the Mexicans very well."