According to ONDCP and other officials in the interagency counternarcotics community, the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico land border presents numerous challenges to preventing illicit drugs from reaching the United States. With 43 legitimate crossing points, the rest of the border consists of hundreds of miles of open desert, rugged mountains, the Rio Grande, and other physical impediments to surveillance, making it easy to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States. Since the 1970s, the United States has collaborated with and provided assistance to Mexico for counternarcotics programs and activities. The goal over the years has been to disrupt the market for illegal drugs, making it more difficult for traffickers to produce and transport illicit drugs to the United States. Specifically, the United States has provided Mexico with assistance for a range of projects, including interdicting cocaine shipments from South America; stemming the production and trafficking of opium poppy, as well as marijuana; and, more recently, controlling precursor chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine. In the past, Mexico has chosen to combat drug trafficking with reduced assistance from the United States, and Mexican sensitivity about its national sovereignty has made it difficult for the two countries to coordinate counternarcotics activities. However, beginning in the mid- 1990s, cooperation began to improve, culminating in 1998 in the signing of a Bi-National Drug Control Strategy. Since then, the two countries have continued to cooperate through meetings of a U.S.-Mexico Senior Law Enforcement Plenary, among other contacts. Mexico is the conduit for most of the cocaine reaching the United States, the source for much of the heroin consumed in the United States, and the largest foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine to the U.S. market. According to U.S. and Mexican estimates, which vary from year to year, more cocaine flowed toward the United States through Mexico during 2006 than in 2000, and more heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine were produced in Mexico during 2005 than in 2000. In addition, although reported seizures of these drugs within Mexico and along the U.S. southwest border generally increased, according to the U.S. interagency counternarcotics community, seizures have been a relatively small percentage of the estimated supply. As we have reported previously, acknowledged shortcomings in the illicit drug production and seizure data collected and reported by various U.S. government agencies mean that the data cannot be considered precise. However, they can provide an overall indication of the magnitude and nature of the illicit drug trade. Based on the available data, the following describes the trends since 2000 on the amount of cocaine arriving in Mexico for transshipment to the United States; the amounts of heroin and marijuana produced in Mexico; and reported seizures of these illicit drugs and methamphetamine in Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexico border. (See app. I for a more detailed table of the data.) Cocaine: Virtually all the cocaine consumed in the United States is produced along the South American Andean ridge—primarily, in Colombia. The U.S. interagency counternarcotics community prepares an annual assessment (the Interagency Assessment of Cocaine Movement ) that, among other things, estimates the amount of cocaine departing South America toward the United States. From 2000 to 2006, the IACM reported an increase in the estimated amount of cocaine flowing through Mexico to the United States—from 66 percent in 2000 to 77 percent in 2003 and 90 percent in 2006. Between 2000 and 2002, the cocaine estimated arriving in Mexico rose about 23 percent—from 220 to 270 metric tons. In 2003, it declined over 60 metric tons, or about 22 percent. For 2004-2006, the IACM did not provide “point” estimates for cocaine flow because of certain methodological concerns; rather, a range was provided for each year. The midpoint of the IACM range of cocaine estimated arriving in Mexico during 2006 (about 380 metric tons) was about 160 metric tons more than the estimate for 2000. Using the midpoint of the IACM ranges, the amount of cocaine estimated arriving in Mexico during 2000-2006 averaged about 290 metric tons per year. Despite the apparent increases in cocaine arriving in Mexico, the amount of cocaine reported seized in Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexico border for 2000-2006 did not increase proportionately, with 43 metric tons reported seized in 2000, a low of 28 metric tons seized in 2003, and a high of 44 metric tons in 2005. Reported seizures for 2000-2006 averaged about 36 metric tons a year, or about 13 percent of the estimated amount of cocaine arriving in Mexico. Heroin: During 2000-2005, the estimated amount of heroin produced for export in Mexico averaged almost 19 metric tons a year—ranging from a low of 9 metric tons in 2000 to a high of 30 metric tons in 2003. Although the estimated amount of heroin produced declined in 2004 and 2005, the 2005 estimate (17 metric tons) was nearly double the estimated amount produced in 2000. Reported heroin seizures in Mexico and along the U.S.- Mexico border averaged less than 1 metric ton or less than 5 percent a year of the estimated export quality heroin produced in Mexico between 2000 and 2005. Marijuana: During 2000-2005, the estimated amount of marijuana produced in Mexico each year averaged about 9,400 metric tons—ranging from a low of 7,000 metric tons in 2000 to a high of 13,500 metric tons in 2003. Although estimated production declined to 10,100 metric tons in 2005, this was over 3,000 metric tons more than the estimated production in 2000. Reported seizures of marijuana in Mexico and along the U.S.- Mexico border ranged from about 2,150 metric tons in 2000 to nearly 3,500 in 2003—averaging less than 2,900 metric tons a year, or about 30 percent of the annual production estimates. Methamphetamine: Neither the United States nor the government of Mexico prepares estimates of the amount of methamphetamine produced in Mexico. However, U.S. officials told us that the large increases in reported methamphetamine seizures from 2000 through 2006 point to significantly greater amounts being manufactured. On the basis of the reported data, seizures along the U.S.-Mexico border rose more than five times—from an estimated 500 kilograms in 2000 to almost 2,900 metric tons in 2004 and over 2,700 kilograms in 2006. In 2001, State reported that pervasive corruption within the government of Mexico was the greatest challenge facing Mexico’s efforts to curb drug trafficking. Since then State has reported on the Mexican government’s efforts to reduce corruption. Nevertheless, increasing illicit drug proceeds from the United States—estimated by the National Drug Intelligence Center at between $8 billion and $23 billion in 2005—has afforded Mexican DTOs considerable resources to subvert government institutions, particularly at the state and local level. U.S. and Mexican government officials and various other observers, including academics, investigative journalists, and nongovernmental organizations that study drug trafficking trends in Mexico, told us that profits of such magnitude enable drug traffickers to bribe law enforcement and judicial officials. Since 2000, Mexico has undertaken several initiatives to address corruption. For instance, in 2001, when Mexican authorities created the Federal Investigative Agency (AFI) in the Mexican Attorney General’s Office, they disbanded the Federal Judicial Police, which was widely considered corrupt. Mexico also conducted aggressive investigations into public corruption, resulting in the arrest and prosecution of officials, as well as the dismissal and suspension of others. Despite these actions, corruption remains a major factor complicating efforts to fight organized crime and combat drug trafficking. U.S. and some Mexican law enforcement agents told us that in certain parts of the country, they do not have vetted counterparts to work with. Moreover, AFI represents only about one-third of Mexico’s estimated 24,000 federal law enforcement officials. According to U.S. officials, the majority—about 17,000—belong to the Federal Preventive Police, whose personnel are not subject to the same requirements as those of AFI for professional selection, polygraph and drug testing, and training. Partly to address the problem of corruption, Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s government has begun to consolidate various federal civilian law enforcement entities into one agency and triple the number of trained, professional federal law enforcement officers subject to drug, polygraph, and other testing. This initiative will combine AFI and the Federal Preventive Police, along with officers from other agencies, into one agency known as the Federal Police Corps, which would operate in cities and towns of more than 15,000 people. However, this initiative will not affect the vast majority of Mexico’s law enforcement officials, most of whom are state and local employees and who, according to one source, number approximately 425,000. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), four main DTOs control the illicit drug production and trafficking in Mexico and operate with relative impunity in certain parts of the country: The Federation, which operates from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, is an alliance of drug traffickers that U.S. and Mexican officials told us may have the most extensive geographic reach in Mexico. The Tijuana Cartel, also known as the Arellano Felix Organization after its founder, operates from the border city of Tijuana in the Mexican state of Baja California. Its activities center in the northwestern part of Mexico, where, according to local investigative journalists and U.S. officials, it exerts considerable influence over local law enforcement and municipal officials. The Juarez Cartel is based in Ciudad Juarez, in the border state of Chihuahua. According to DEA officials, the Juarez Cartel has extensive ties to state and local law enforcement officials. The Gulf Cartel operates out of Matamoros on the Gulf of Mexico, in the border state of Tamaulipas.