CSDP Blog

The demand for meth and prohibition of its ingredients is re-shaping the global drug trafficking map. According to the Los Angeles Times October 13, 2008 article, ("Latin America: Argentina a New Hub for Meth Traffickers") "The execution-style slayings have sent shock waves across Argentina, which has largely been spared the drug violence seen in Colombia and Peru, the world's top cocaine producers. These killings, authorities say, were related to a more prosaic product: ephedrine, the synthetic stimulant found in cough and cold remedies. Ephedrine is also used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, the highly addictive drug long a scourge in the United States. Officials suspect that the three men were involved with a relatively new smuggling route called the 'ephedrine highway,' the triangulated transport of ephedrine from Asia to Argentina to Mexico, ultimately destined for the booming U.S. meth market."

The article states, "Mexican traffickers have become the main suppliers of methamphetamine to the United States. But a crackdown in Mexico has squeezed supplies of ephedrine from Asia, leading the gangs to seek their raw material in Argentina, a nation with a robust pharmaceutical industry, relatively few controls and a reputation for corrupt cops and customs inspectors. The Mexican-Argentine relationship has proved an expedient marriage: abundant product, a compliant host nation and an efficient trafficking network. But the brutal killings have exposed the perils of courting Mexican drug rings. Once confined largely to their homeland and U.S. border states, Mexican criminal gangs have vaulted over international frontiers and formed far-flung alliances."

The article adds, "Methamphetamine is a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States, though its use is believed to have leveled off since the 1990s. U.S. authorities began to notice last year that street prices were soaring for methamphetamine, acting U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrator Michele Leonhart said at a conference in July in Istanbul, Turkey. Authorities attribute the price increase to heightened enforcement pressures south of the Rio Grande. The lure of drug profits had for years spurred large-scale importation of ephedrine and related products to Mexico, mostly from Asia. At Washington's urging, Mexico last year moved to ban most ephedrine imports and moved aggressively against meth labs. As a result, desperate Mexican traffickers turned to Argentina, according to the DEA. Argentina, like Mexico, is not a manufacturer of ephedrine. But the country's pharmaceutical sector is a major importer, buying mostly from China and India. Imports of ephedrine to Argentina recently began to soar -- from 2.9 tons in 2004 to 19.1 tons in 2007, according to government figures."