Methamphetamine seizures at U.S. ports of entry on the California-Mexico border reached unprecedented levels in fiscal 2014, as drug trafficking organizations try to smuggle growing quantities of the low-cost Mexican-made product into the U.S., the Associated Press reports. U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures show 14,732 pounds of meth seized by the San Diego field office, accounting for 63 percent of the synthetic drug seized at all ports of entry nationwide.
With the California border as their main smuggling route, “the Mexican cartels are flooding the U.S. marketplace with their cheap methamphetamine,” said chief Drug Enforcement Administration agent Gary Hill in San Diego. Undercover agents are purchasing meth in San Diego for $3,500 a pound, versus about $11,800 for a pound of cocaine, Hill said. “We have seen the trend of the price of meth decreasing tremendously since 2008.” Meth, a highly addictive synthetic drug, once was primarily produced in the U.S., with San Diego its manufacturing capital. With a U.S. law enforcement crackdown on the chemicals used to make meth, DEA estimates that 90 percent of the meth consumed in the U.S. is manufactured in labs south of the border.