Les cartels de drogues mexicains s’installent en Amérique centrale

By Katherine Corcoran, Associated Press

On a steamy, late-summer day near the Salvadoran coast, more than 100 police working an intelligence tip scoured a near-vacant cattle ranch the size of 42 Manhattan blocks.

Using probes and backhoes, they unearthed two plastic storage drums packed with U.S. dollars. It took three days to count the $20s, $50s and $100s — which added up to more than $10 million. A third barrel was excavated a week later from beneath a patio in an upscale San Salvador suburb, for a total of $14.5 million.

Though questions remain, the stash may be Mexican drug cartel money. One of the two Guatemalan ranch owners allegedly had ties to the leader of a Guatemalan branch of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel, who is serving a 31-year sentence for drug trafficking in the U.S.

Mexican drug cartels now operate virtually uninhibited in their Central American backyard. U.S.-supported crackdowns in Mexico and Colombia have only pushed traffickers into a region where corruption is rampant, borders lack even minimal immigration control and local gangs provide a ready-made infrastructure for organized crime.

“The cartels are clear on the possibilities for using El Salvador as a place to launder money or to transport it south to pay for their drugs,” National Police deputy director Howard Cotto told The Associated Press in an interview.

Read the full article.