Enforcement raises price of cocaine, report says

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s crackdown on drug cartels and stepped-up U.S. border enforcement have disrupted the flow of illegal drugs and caused cocaine supply shortages in 37 U.S. cities, according to a report scheduled for release today by the White House drug policy office.

Cocaine prices have nearly doubled in some cities and soared from a nationwide average of $95.89 a gram during the first quarter of this year to $118.70 in the second quarter, the report says. Officials track drug supply levels in part by monitoring prices. Rising prices typically indicate reduced supplies.

Larry Birns of the nonprofit Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a frequent critic of U.S. drug policy, dismissed the numbers as “seasonal” blips.

“The long-term trend is prices remaining constant or going down,” Birns said. “Law enforcement agencies claiming successes in this anti-drug battle is somewhat illusory.”

The cocaine supply figures are part of a rollout of new data, and the declassification of parts of the Bush administration’s strategic counternarcotics plan, by White House drug officials who were criticized last month by the Government Accountability Office.

The watchdog agency accused the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy of not coordinating sufficiently with Mexican law enforcement during a time when Mexican cartels penetrated nearly all regions of the United States and took in up to $23 billion annually in revenue. The White House paints a rosier picture, citing “a robust counterdrug relationship between the United States and Mexico,” according to a summary of the declassified plan obtained by the Washington Post.

“This is historic progress,” John Walters, director of the White House drug policy office, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve never worked better together.”

Walters also said that “we’re a couple of days away from releasing details” of a massive aid package to help Mexico fight drug cartels. “We’re finalizing things.”

The aid package is expected to be the largest U.S. anti-drug endeavor overseas since the 2000 launch of Plan Colombia, a multibillion-dollar campaign designed to eradicate coca and erode support for Marxist rebels. The Mexico proposal, which will likely require congressional approval, will probably have two phases, a top Bush administration official said Monday. The first phase would be “just shy of $1 billion,” the official said.