Word: deas
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Even the State Department, which produced the certification list, has quietly joined the DEA in opposing the full certification of Mexico, partly on grounds that Mexican authorities have failed to prosecute suspected killers of a DEA agent. But the President and Attorney General Edwin Meese took a more tolerant view of Mexico's drug-fighting efforts. "We have to recognize that in some countries the government is fully cooperative," Meese said recently. "They are less than fully successful because of intimidation, bribery and corruption...
...secrets of the drug lords' success? Greed and fear, or, as Colombians call it, plomo o plata (lead or silver), meaning take the money or the bullet. The lure is rarely subtle. Last fall, for instance, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) discovered a freshly dug tunnel less than 100 ft. from the prison cell near Mexico City that houses Rafael Caro Quintero, one of Mexico's most notorious traffickers. Preparations were made to move him to another building. Then a prison official received an envelope in the mail. It contained cash, pictures of his children...
...Colombian imprint deepened when Ramon Matta Ballesteros, a Honduran drug dealer, returned from Colombia in 1986 and settled in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Matta, who has been described as a chief contact between the Medellin suppliers and Mexican smugglers, is wanted by the DEA in connection with the 1985 murder in Mexico of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar. In Honduras, which does not allow extradition, Matta is living the good life, flamboyantly dispensing money to the poor who line up outside his palatial estate. His assets are said to amount to more than $1 billion; he reportedly paid...
...result of DEA and Customs probes in Mexico, several senior officials have been linked to drug traffickers. U.S. investigators are also pursuing allegations that one Cabinet-rank official accepted payoffs from dealers. At the state level, corruption appears rampant. One DEA investigation tied a large drug operator both socially and financially to five former state governors and at least one current governor. "Corruption has penetrated all levels of the Mexican government," says a ranking U.S. law-enforcement official. "It's vertical, it's horizontal and it's total...
...harsh tone reflects the strain in U.S.-Mexican relations that set in following the torture-murder three years ago of DEA Agent Camarena. In December a federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted nine people, including Drug Barons Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, and three former Mexican police officials. U.S. authorities charge that the Mexican police hindered the investigation and are still withholding evidence that might help to arrest other suspects...