METH BECOMES THE MOST PROMINENT DRUG ON THE BAJA BORDER

by Ines Garcia Ramos

ZETA
September 9, 2016

In the region between Tijuana-San Diego, meth has position itself as the most commercialized, trafficked and consumed drug. In the last 10 months, American law enforcement agencies have confiscated more than 9 tons of meth at the border. Small doses of meth have also become the most common drug that has been found in the streets of Baja California.

Its early in the morning. From American soil, along the border region that is patrolled by the Border Patrol one can hear songs from Vicente Fernandez and rooster crows coming out of houses that are made of wood in Tijuana. There is almost one kilometer that separates the houses and the border patrol guard post, however not even the fence that divides the United States from Mexico can't stop the folk music nor the sound of the birds which create a special vibe along the border of San Diego, California. Early in the morning, some residents from la Colonia Libertad, which is located east from the San Ysidro border crossing, start to carefully observe border patrol officers through binoculars. A border patrol agent explained to a ZETA correspondent that this is a common practice. The idea is to locate an access point or a moment of distraction by the border patrol in order to warn immigrants who are trying to cross the border illegally or drug traffickers. Once the drugs make its way into the border, its value increases significantly. For example, the cost of one pound can go up to 10 thousand dollars. In the case of cocaine, a pound exceeds 12 thousand dollars.

Trafficking methods vary. Marihuana is usually not trafficked through ports of entry because of its strong odor and volume, while [powder] drugs such as meth, [heroin] and cocaine are being hidden in secret compartments such as gas tanks and glove compartments. An old piece of cloth with oxidized metal spikes which go through one the extremes and is wrapped around with ropes, is one the many tools that traffickers used and have been recently found by border patrol agents in one of their most recent patrols. The agents claim that this tool is used to hook it to the top of the fence and then use it to climb it and jump from it. Some of them use it just to cross the border, however others, use it to carry drugs across the border.

From October of 2015 to August of 2016, the Border Patrol San Diego Sector has confiscated almost a ton of meth. 928 kilograms to be exact. To this quantity we must add the 8 tons 295 thousand kilograms of meth that has been confiscated by the Customs and Border Protection(CBP) in the San Ysidro port of entry, Otay, Tecate, Calexico and Andrade, as well as ports and airports of the California border which were confiscated from October 2015 to July of 2015.

Two months away to the end of the current fiscal year and we are already exceeding the 7 tons 951 kilos that were confiscated in 2015 by custom agents. This quantities are impressive and according to US custom officials their value in the streets exceed 20 million dollars.

If we divide the quantity of confiscated meth by the quantity of a small dose, than we can conclude that we have confiscated 9 million doses in less than a year which means that there is a tremendous demand for meth.