(Prensa.com) Panama, Guatemala and Honduras remain the most used countries for trafficking cocaine from South American into Mexico and the United States, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials said Wednesday.The agency said these countries have “porous borders, corruption, and badly equipped police forces without proper training.”
DEA Chief Thomas Harrigan, testifying before a Senate committee, said that there has also been increased traffic in Central America of the chemicals used for the production of methamphetamine. He also said heroin shipments from South America are on the rise. He mentioned cargo containers as the preferred method of delivery by cartels
“Almost in the whole region, Central American port authorities lack the capacity to review much of the cargo in their ports,” Harrigan said.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said that the Central American countries are very attractive for criminal organizations because “they are weakened by high unemployment, high crime rates and rampant government corruption.”
Grassley called the border between Guatemala and Mexico “extremely vulnerable” because of weak enforcement.
“The criminal organizations freely cross borders throughout the region of Central America with little fear that someone will try to stop them,” added the legislator.