Mexico, U.S. claim major victory in drugs war

By Lizbeth Diaz

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico and the United States are claiming an important breakthrough in the drugs war, citing record lows in U.S. cocaine supplies, fewer gangland murders and the capture of several powerful traffickers.

The average price of a gram of cocaine on U.S. streets rose 24 percent between January and June to $118.70, its highest level in at least five years, because of tight supplies, U.S. anti-drug officials say.

Cocaine purity fell 11 percent in the same period, indicating that less is entering the United States.

"This impact is historic, this is real progress," said Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

John Walters, the White House "drug czar", will officially announce the figures on Tuesday in San Diego.

Some U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agents now predict a long-term decline in cocaine trade across their border, in contrast to a booming market for the drug in Europe.

But similar claims in the past have proven short-lived as Colombian and Mexican drug lords found new routes for South American cocaine into the United States.

Still, an army crackdown on drug gangs by President Felipe Calderon does seem to be hurting Mexican smugglers who ship most of the cocaine northward.

Since taking office last December, Calderon has sent some 25,000 troops to bring order to areas where the gangs are strong like the western state of Michoacan.

The military operations are causing control of the cartels to crumble, which in turn has broken down the narcotics delivery chain into the United States, said Victor Manuel Zatarain, a senior police intelligence chief in Tijuana.

The city, 20 miles from San Diego, is home to a cartel that runs drugs up the Pacific coast and over the land border into California.

Under Calderon's crackdown, executions between Mexican rival gangs have dropped from a peak in March when dozens of bodies were found every day.

Still, about 2,000 people have died so far this year in turf wars mainly between the Gulf Cartel and an alliance of traffickers from Sinaloa state.

Police in the northern state of Nuevo Leon were digging on Monday at a suspected mass grave sites where around 15 people killed in drug violence might be buried.

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