Garcia blames Mexican drug cartels for Peru violence

By Marco Aquino

LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Alan Garcia on Thursday blamed his country's recent rash of drug-related violence on powerful Mexican drug cartels that are making inroads and building criminal alliances in Peru.

In the last two months, at least 22 policemen and soldiers have died fighting drug trafficking in Peru -- the world's second-largest producer of cocaine after Colombia.

In the most recent clash, at least four policemen were killed on Wednesday when 40 suspected members of Peru's Shining Path guerrilla group ambushed a government convoy in the jungle, using automatic weapons and hand grenades.

Authorities say the rebels have largely abandoned their Maoist ideology in favor of running drugs, and they accuse them of teaming up with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.

"Mexican cartels are capturing, or trying to capture, the Peruvian market. This is the problem," Garcia told a group of foreign reporters, explaining the uptick in violence.

"The Mexican cartels are much more aggressive than those from Colombia," he said.

In past decades, Colombian gangs were thought to control many of the lucrative routes for running drugs between Peru and the United States, mainly cocaine, a stimulant made from the leaves of the coca plant, an Andean shrub.

But Mexican gangs, like the powerful Sinaloa cartel, are gaining ground. In September, Peruvian police arrested 20 people suspected of working for Sinaloa and seized some 2.5 tonnes of cocaine valued at $125 million. It was the strongest sign yet of the growing presence of the Mexican group in Peru.

The Shining Path led a deadly insurrection in Peru starting in 1980. It largely collapsed in the early 1990s after its leadership was captured, but a few hundred holdouts remain.

Garcia said Peru is working to forge a cooperation agreement with Mexico to help combat the rise in killings.

Drug violence has claimed more than 4,300 lives in Mexico this year in clashes among rival gangs and the government.

"We must redouble our effort to crush the drug trade, cost what it may," said Garcia.

Also on Thursday, the head of Peru's government anti-drug group DEVIDA said production of opium poppies, the raw material for heroin, is increasing, although he did not give details.

Last year, the amount of land dedicated to growing poppies increased 17 percent worldwide, according to the United Nations, which does not track growth in Peru because it is still considered to be small.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore; Writing by Dana Ford; Editing by Hilary Burke and Anthony Boadle)