NewsFromRussia.Com DEA: Guatemala could become a "mini Colombia"

NewsFromRussia.Com DEA: Guatemala could become a "mini Colombia": "DEA: Guatemala could become a 'mini Colombia'

00:08 2005-11-23
>Guatemala

'If they don't change things, they could have a mini-Colombia here,' Michael O'Brien, DEA attache at the U.S. Embassy, told a small group of reporters. 'We have seen that (drug gangs) want to influence the public and the government.'

Last week, DEA agents in the United States detained Guatemala's anti-narcotics chief, Adan Castillo, and two of his aides on charges they were helping smuggle narcotics. Following Castillo's arrest, police here found five packets of cocaine and US$22,000 (?18,800) in cash in his office.

O'Brien said that Castillo was 'working with several Guatemalan drug cartels, but because it's an open case I can't say which.'

Guatemalan Interior Minister Carlos Vielman acknowledged on Tuesday that the problem of drug-corruption is getting worse.

'Narcotics traffickers have infiltrated all the structures of the state,' Vielman said. 'We worry that they have links with the military, police, judges, prosecutors and other institutions.'

Vielman said the DEA is helping the Guatemalan government overhaul its anti-drug police force.

He urged the Guatemalan legislature to pass laws that would give investigators greater powers to fight the cartels.

'We need an organized crime law that allows us to pay informants, have undercover agents and listen to telephone calls,' he said. 'Without that, we are not going to be able to capture any of the cartel bosses.'

U.S. officials say an estimated 75 percent of the cocaine that reaches American soil passes through Guatemala, in part because its government long did little to stop it.

President Oscar Berger took office in January 2004 promising take a stronger anti-drug stand than did his predecessor, Alfonso Portillo. During Portillo's term, Washington dropped Guatemala from its list of anti-narcotics allies, reports AP.
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