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Official blames a fortified U.S. border for rise in Mexican cocaine use The Associated Press 10/17/01 9:54 PM

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Increased security along the U.S. border after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington has made it harder for smugglers to move drugs onto American soil and increased cocaine use in Mexico, a police official said Wednesday.

Crime Prevention Director Pedro Jose Penaloza told a news conference that cocaine smugglers, afraid to cross a fortified U.S. border, have begun selling drugs at rock-bottom prices in the central states of San Luis Potosi, Aguascalientes, Queretaro and Guanajuato.

The states have long been considered part of the "smugglers' bridge to the U.S.-Mexican border," Penaloza said.

Penaloza said Mexico has become so saturated with cocaine that drug dealers in some locales are offering the usually high-priced narcotic at prices that are cheaper than the normal street price of marijuana.

-- k (infosurf@yahoo.com), October 18, 2001