DOJ Report: Mexican Meth Rules U.S. Drug Market

The good news in the just-released National Methamphetamine Threat Assessment 2008 by the Department of Justice is that domestic production of the illicit drug is down.

However, the victories against clandestine labs in urban and rural America are being overshadowed by the entrenched Mexican methamphetamine producers and distributors who now rule the U.S. drug market. Canada is also exporting the illicit drug across the border, but its production does not rival Mexico’s.

"The increasing prevalence of high-purity ice methamphetamine throughout the country and the expansion of methamphetamine networks operated by Mexican and, more recently, Asian drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) have largely sustained methamphetamine markets in the United States," the report states.

“Mexican DTOs distributing Mexican methamphetamine continue to dominate domestic markets. In fact, distribution of the drug in domestic drug markets by Mexican DTOs is increasing, supplanting many local dealers who had previously produced and distributed the drug independently.”