"We are doing everything we can to stop drugs crossing to the United States but given this is a transnational business by definition it requires the United States do its part and that essentially means the flow of arms to Mexico," said Mexican Prosecutor General Eduardo Medina Mora Dec. 10. "We have done our part, we hope the United States will do its part." Speaking in Mexico City, Medina said some $10 billion in drug cash flows south each year, and that gun stores on the north side of the border sell twice as much as outlets elsewhere in the US. "There's a very large flow of money from the United States to Mexico which has no other explanation than drug trafficking," he said. "The US government has a very important job to do."

He also called upon US authorities to crack down on the movement of chemicals used in the manufacture of methamphetamine—now banned in Mexico and mostly produced in China and India.

Over 13,300 people supposedly linked to the narco traffic were arrested this year, and 89 extradited. Drug-related murders continue unabated, and are set to top 2,500 this year, up from 2,100 in 2006. (Reuters, Dec. 10)

See our last posts on the Mexico, the narco crisis and the struggle for the border.