NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02989173
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: September 16, 2019
• Case Number: F-2018-02250
• Publication Date: June 25, 1975

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Approved for Release: 2019/09/16 002989173
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The
National Intelligence
Daily
Published by the Director of Central Intelligence for Named Principals Only
WEDNESDAY JUNE 25, 1975 VOLUME 2, NUMBER 148
TCS 575/75
NR Record
Approved for Release: 2019/09/16 002989173
Approved for Release: 2019/09/16 002989173
CRE
2 WEDNESDAY JUNE 25,1975
TCS 575/75 THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DAILY
MAIRAIMMINIIIMINES
FERN HEMISPHERE
Ittit
UNWASOMMERM,
MIMEO rein
Despite Its Efforts, Mexico Is Key Source of Illicit Drugs in the US
Today, the Daily offers the second of
three articles on Latin America and nar-
corks. It deals with Mexico and heroin;
tomorrow we will examine the cocaine
traffic.
CIA
Mexico is the largest single source
in Latin America of illicit drugs entering
the US. In the last few years, Mexican
heroin has filled the void left in the
US market by reduced supplies of Euro-
pean heroin, the transit traffic in co-
caine has increased considerably, and
marijuana continues to cross the border
in huge quantities.
US assistance to Mexican enforcement
agencies is playing an important role in
efforts to stem the flow. Mexico is now us-
ing a sophisticated poppy detection
system provided by the US, as well as
several large troop-carrying helicopters
based near the growing areas.
The aid enables the Mexicans to carry
the fight to remote poppy and marijuana
fields, and they apparently have been
doing so with a venegeance in the past
several weeks. Mexican statistics, which
are largely unverified, show that the
opium poppy destruction campaign has
been extraordinarily successful this
year.
These successes may not result in
a significant reduction in the produc-
tion of heroin or in its movement into
the US, since cultivation may be expand-
ing to compensate for the fields de-
stroyed.
Heroin
Opium poppies are grown in at least 10
of the 31 Mexican states. Most fields are
hidden in the mountains and hills of the
Mexican opium poppies
western states of Sinaloa, Durango, and
Chihuahua. Aerial reconnaissance last
spring and fall turned up nearly 1,500
opium poppy fields in a 750-square-mile
area in this region, and, in many areas,
two crops can be harvested each
year�one in early spring and one in
September or October.
Heroin-producing laboratories have
been identified in 13 states. A large
number are in and around Culiacan,
Sinaloa�the heroin center of Mexico.
Although some heroin is processed in
laboratories, most is turned out by in-
dividual enterprises, mobile and simple in
operation, producing a few kilograms per
batch. These laboratories require little
space�often no more than a kitchen
is needed�and they can easily be hidden
in the mountains or in cities.
Traffickers employ a wide variety of
methods to get the narcotics into the US.
The narcotics are carried by land, sea, or
air�no single method appears to be
preferred over another. Movement by air
is substantial: in May 1974, US narcotics
agents, monitoring radar near Del Rio,
Texas, discovered about one illegal cross-
ing by air per hour with a 100-mile
radius of Del Rio, which is not the most
active crossing area.
Bizarre methods have been used:
� Crude opium and morphine have
been packaged in plastic bags which
are then shoved down the throats of
cattle being shipped to the border.
� Individuals have been known to
swallow a balloon containing about
two grams of heroin just before cross-
ing the border.
� Arrows, to which an ounce or less
of heroin is attached, have been shot
across narrow portions of the Rio
Grande.
A Family Affair
Hundreds of gangs are involved in the
trafficking, as are hundreds of individuals,
many of them American tourists seeking
to make a quick profit. As of February
1975, there were 420 US citizens in Mex-
ican jails on narcotics charges.
In many cases, trafficking is a famil
affair.
oping
The federal judicial police are charged
with enforcing narcotic laws under the
guidance and control of the attorney
general. The police cannot cope with the
problem. They number only about 340
and they must enforce all federal laws.
They
receive little instruction in control of nar-
cotics and illicit drug traffic.
Plans are afoot to improve the force. A
training academy was established last
July, and the attorney general intends
to increase manpower and raise salaries.
It will probably be a couple of years or
more before improvements begin to bear
fruit.
The army, which for many years has
sent thousands of troops into the coun-
tryside to destroy poppies and marijuana
plants, is too ill-equipped and overworked
to cope with the problem. The army is
also responsible for security, and anti-
Sonora
4 ,
_Baja
California
Opium Poppy Growing Areas
Principal growing area
tot, Probable area of most
intensive cultivation
drug campaigns some times complicate
the security problem by arousing local
opposition.
The army still manages to destroy
quantities of opium poppies and mari-
juana�if the statistics it provides the US
embassy are anywhere near the mark.
According to the army's statistics,
nearly 33 million square meters were
destroyed from January through April
1975; the total for all of 1974 was about
22.5 million square meters. The total
number of poppy fields reported
destroyed in the first four months of 1975
was 8,011, compared to 9,825 in all of
1974.
On the surface, the figures look im-
pressive. Still, all this destruction may not
necessarily make a large dent in the flow
of Mexican heroin into the US, since no
one knows how big Mexico's poppy crop
is.
Most of the destruction was in the
Sinaloa-Durango-Chihuahua and the
Guerrero-Michoacan-Oaxaca areas;
other areas may be prolific producers.
Growers may be taking more care to
make their fields inaccessible to destruc-
tion teams. Hundreds of fields were
probably harvested before the teams
arrived.
Other Measures
Mexico had adopted a new drug law
that provides stiffer penalties to traf-
fickers, but lighter sentences to young,
first-time drug users. The minimum
sentence for trafficking has been in-
creased from three years to five years and
three months, and a jail term is now man-
datory.
Persons convicted of growing opium
poppies, producing heroin, or financing
those who do are now subject to the same
penalties as the traffickers.
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Other groups are maneuvering for con- (b)(1)
trol over the lucrative Ciudad Juarez drug
business and are building their own
coterie of protectors
the former drug czar will make a come-
back and assume full control in the area
after the dust settles.
In two states, federal and state police
reportedly have been operating effectively
against small, independent traffickers
because they compete with the large,
organized gangs that pay for police
protection. Wide publicity is given to such
arrests to verify the effectiveness of the
war on narcotics traffickers.
Prospects
With continued US help, more progress
can be expected. The vigorous and ap-
parently extensive destruction of drug
crops in the field, if done effectively and
repeatedly, is bound to have an effect.
The use of herbicides to destroy the
crops is being reconsidered by the govern-
ment after being rejected some time ago
for environmental re
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The growers and traffickers may in
time be hurt by the countermeasures, but
they have proved to be a resourceful lot.(b)( 1 )
Putting the big traffickers out of business
will be difficult. Indeed, Mexico is likely
to go on being a convenient country for
those involved in the trafficking of nar-
cotics to the US, and there is little reason
why they should not attem to increase
their activities.
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NR Record
lr---71tAw-SEFeRET._
Approved for Release: 2019/09/16 002989173
Approved for Release: 2019/09/16 002989173
PECR
THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DAILY TCS 575/75 WEDNESDAY JUNE 25, 1975 3
NR Record
Approved for Release: 2019/09/16 002989173
Approved for Release: 2019/09/16 002989173 NR Record
TOI� ECIIET______
4 WEDNESDAY JUNE 25,1975 TCS 575/75 THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DAILY
Approved for Release: 2019/09/16 002989173