HomeNewsAnalysisUNODC: Meth Production Moving Out of Mexico?
ANALYSIS

UNODC: Meth Production Moving Out of Mexico?

MEXICO / 16 SEP 2011 BY ELYSSA PACHICO EN

Mexico's crackdown on methaphetamine is pushing the industry into other Central and South American countries, according to a new report by the United Nations. Could Mexico lose its place as the region's top meth producer?

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) are now the second-most widely consumed drug in the world, after marijuana. The biggest producer of ATS in Latin America is Mexico, the supplier of up to 80 percent of the U.S.'s methaphetamine, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Among the substances identified by the UNODC, methaphetamine is the most highly addictive and is by far the greatest risk to public health and security. It is also the substance that drug traffickers will mostly likely begin producing in other vulnerable countries across the region, if crackdowns against the drug continue in North America, according to a recent UNODC report (pdf).

Both Mexico and the U.S. have taken moves to restrict meth production. Most legislation is aimed at controlling the sales of pseudophedrine and ephedrine, the main precursor chemicals used to make the drug. In 2005, U.S. Congress passed a law that controlled sales of nasal decongestants and cold medicine like Sudafed, which use pseudophedrine as a key ingredient. Many states began tracking sales and moved cold medicines behind the counter, leading to a drop in local production.

Instead, the small-scale, clandestine meth kitchen in the rural U.S. was edged out by larger, industrial-style factories in Mexico. More purer and potent forms of meth began flooding the northern market as Mexican traffickers stepped in to feed the demand. Criminal groups like the Familia Michoacana and the Sinaloa Cartel all made inroads into the business, once primarily managed by the now-defunct Colima Cartel. One leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ignacio Coronel Villareal, became known as the "king of ice" thanks to his domination of the trade.

In 2008, Mexico banned imports of pseudophedrine and ephedine. Nevertheless, meth production continued and even increased between 2008 and 2009, according to the UNODC. So far in 2011, authorities have seized a record amount of meth along the U.S.-Mexico border. During the first half of the year, Mexican security forces dismantled 103 clandestine labs, a 25 percent increase from the same period last year.

The rise in seizures of meth and precursor chemicals are, in part, an indication of Mexico's increased efforts to combat the trade. But, as the UNODC points out, this is already beginning to have several adverse side-effects. Meth labs are now appearing in South America, an area where previously there was no history of production. In 2009, methaphetamine laboratories were found in Brazil and Nicaragua, both firsts for the region.

Seizures of precursor chemicals in Central and South America are also up, according to the UNODC. Excluding Mexico, the region saw nearly 12 tons of ephedrine confiscated in 2009. This is a 12-fold increase from 2005. Seizures of pseudophedrine are also on the rise. El Salvador reportedly confiscated 42 tons of the precursor chemical during the last half of 2009 and the first half of 2010. Large-scale seizures were also reported in countries like Guatemala, Belize and the Dominican Republic.

However, Latin America will likely only see an increase in methaphetamine production if local demand for the drug grows. This is unlikely, since the cheap, addictive drug of choice is the readily available by-product of cocaine production -- known as "basuco" in Colombia, "merla" in Brazil and "paco" in Argentina. And with smuggling and production networks already so well established in Mexico, it's doubtful that other countries will attempt to compete and become major exporters of meth to the U.S. Mexico, already has the natural advantage, thanks to its proximity to the U.S. and its trade links with Asia, the origin of many precursor chemicals needed for production.

In the near future, Mexico is likely to remain the region's top producer of meth, even with tighter controls against precursor chemicals. There are already signs that traffickers are circumventing the ban on pseudophedrine and ephedine. Traffickers are changing their approach, shifting away from bulk, raw materials to using legal pharmeceuticals containing the necessary ingredients. And by its very nature, the production of synthetic drugs like meth is highly flexible. Substitute chemicals for ephedrine are increasingly being found in Mexican meth labs. This is one indication that traffickers are now using "masked" precursors -- legal chemicals which can be processed into other substances needed to make meth.

As the UNODC points out, the appearance in meth labs in several Latin American countries and the increased seizure of precursor chemicals across the region is certainly a cause for a trend. But it hardly heralds a trend in meth production outside of Mexico.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

DISPLACEMENT / 24 NOV 2021

Winning a lottery prize of close to $1 million should have been a positive, life-changing event for a kindergarten and…

HOMICIDES / 7 FEB 2022

Stopping near their target, one of the criminals stays on the vehicle while the other jumps off, shoots the victim…

ELITES AND CRIME / 30 SEP 2021

Evidence and accusations are piling up against Mexico's former top security official Genaro García Luna, as US prosecutors proffer new…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…