Welcome to Extra N.A. Online! Thursday September 9, 2010 Homepage    |    News    |    Archives    |    Advertise    |    Contact Us    |    News Email to a Friend > US report: Drug runners shifting to Central America, Caribbean Wednesday, March 03, 2010 WASHINGTON (AP): Drug traffickers are adjusting to law enforcement pressures in Mexico by shifting their operations to smuggling corridors in Central America and the Caribbean, the U.S. State Department said Monday. “There is growing evidence that Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations are already establishing a presence in these regions, particularly in some Central American states,” the department said in a survey of 2009 global counter-narcotics efforts. The report is compiled yearly, as required by Congress. In what it termed a “balloon effect” in which drug groups facing pressure in one territory switch operations to another, the report said this phenomenon extends beyond the Western Hemisphere. It said West Africa, for example, now serves as a major corridor route for cocaine consumed in Europe and markets further east. The State Department lauded the Mexican government for an ambitious campaign to combat drugs and go after drug traffickers. It cited increased seizures last year of cocaine, opium gum and heroin, and said total drug arrests hit a record high, including the capture of a number of high-profile drug cartel figures. Send your comments about this Note. Include your name and location at the bottom of your comments. 1000 characters left. Change Image Write the Validation Code from the image above >>Read More News Stories © 2006-2010, Gleaner Extra NA, All Rights Reserved.