MEXICO: Local and federal law enforcement agrees on one thing, the majority of the meth being used on the streets in coming from Mexico.
Shawn Neudauer with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement press office said while every kind of drug comes across the U.S.-Mexico border, the main drugs being smuggled are methamphetamine and heroin. The transnational crimes are investigated by a division of ICE, the Homeland Security Investigations.
Mr. Neudauer said that even though the drugs come across the border, they affect every state in the union.
“When you have a glass of water and you put a drop of food coloring in it, it doesn’t stay in that one part of the water that it touched,” Mr. Neudauer said.
Mr. Neudauer said ICE maintains a working relationship with Mexican authorities, as they do other authorities across the globe. Depending on the situation, ICE may work with these agencies on sex trafficking cases or drugs.
“Because we are the agency that primarily does transnational criminal investigations, we have developed relationships with a number of foreign nationals,” Mr. Neudauer said. “We have offices in 47 different countries.”
These partnerships help them in their ultimate goals and single partnerships are used to target singular networks. The partnerships don’t always focus on drug smuggling, but also crimes like human trafficking or counterfeit goods.
