Narcos Taking Over: DEA Reports Mexican Drug Trafficking Expanding In USA

The US Drug Enforcement Administration released its 2013 National Drug Threat Assessment Summary which found that Mexican drug trade, particularly heroin, is rising in the US as drug lords or narcos expand into new markets. The report found that "the availability of heroin continued to increase in 2012, likely due to high levels of heroin production in Mexico and Mexican traffickers expanding into white powder heroin markets in the eastern and midwest United States."

The DEA assessment explains the developments in the drug trade across the United States in 2012. The report also reported that "the amount of heroin seized at the Southwest Border increased significantly between 2008 and 2012." Moreover, the report predicts that this growth will continue as Mexican traffickers expand not only the lucrative trade of white heroin but also attempt to introduce Mexican "brown and black tar heroin into eastern US markets." The report als indicated an increase in heroin-related deaths.

The good news, however, is that the summary did find a decline in cocaine availability in various areas as a result of counterdrug efforts as well as greater conflict "between and within Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) in Mexico, and continued reductions in cocaine production rates in Colombia. " However, methamphetamines and marijuana are both also increasing due to increased productio in Mexico.