US, Mexico Fail to Deal With Drug Trade Across Border - State Department

The influx of hard drugs from Mexico to the US is still largelly out of control, the 2016 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) from the US Department of State said.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The hard drug trade across the land border from Mexico to the United States remains out of control, the report reads.

"Mexico remains a major transit country for cocaine and heroin and a source country for heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine destined for the United States," the report, issued on Wednesday, stated. "An estimated 93 percent of all crimes went either unreported or uninvestigated in 2014."

The US government has sent nearly $1.5 billion in training, equipment and technical assistance to Mexico to strengthen its institutions in the so-called War on Drugs, mainly through the Merida Initiative, the report pointed out.

However, in 2016, "Mexico is a major producer of heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine destined for the United States," the report acknowledged.

The United State estimates that opium poppy cultivation increased 59 percent in 2014, to 17,000 ha from 11,000 ha in 2013, which could potentially produce 42 metric tons (MT) of pure heroin, compared with 26 MT in 2013, the report noted.

"Mexican law enforcement officials remain poorly compensated, under-resourced, inadequately trained and vulnerable to corruption," it said.

Interdiction remains a major challenge for Mexico as only a small portion of the cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin originating in or transiting Mexico is interdicted inside the country, the report admitted.