SOUTHCOM shifts focus as drug trade evolves

[unhappycamper]

SOUTHCOM shifts focus as drug trade evolves
By Kate Brannen - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jul 29, 2010 14:39:33 EDT

This year, U.S. Southern Command has seized 100 metric tons of cocaine, a large figure, but only half of what was captured last year, according to Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, who oversees SOUTHCOM.

“There is a change in the trafficking and we are trying to catch up,” Fraser said Thursday at a think tank in Washington.

In 2009, Joint Interagency Task Force-South interdicted 226 metric tons of cocaine, costing the cartels and traffickers $4.5 billion, Fraser told Congress in March.

He said the geographic shift in drug-trafficking routes is partly due to the success of Plan Colombia, the United States’ 10-year effort to fight the illegal drug trade in that country. Its success has bred problems in other regions, he said.

“Plan Colombia, as it was designed and as it has been supported, has been and is a success, but it’s not over yet,” Fraser said. “I would argue that we all need to work together to build a Plan Latin America to address this from a regional standpoint, recognizing that the traffickers will go to wherever they find the best opportunity to operate.”



unhapppycamper comment: How about a 'Plan Leave Latin America Alone'?