Title 3--The President Marijuana eradication was up 39 percent over 1998 and net production down 19 percent for the year. Eradication of opium poppy, while down \1770 percent from \177998, combined with reduced cultivation to yield a more than 25 percent drop in net opium gum production. The GeM made over 8,000 drug-related arrests, including: maior cartel co-founder Juan Quintere Payan and key associates Oscar t\177eniamin Garcia Davila and Jaime Aguilar Gastelum. The Mexican Congress passed a new law codifying the use of seized/forfeited assets and creating a new office in the treasury ministry to manage these assets. Mexico's achievements continued to be undermined by chronic institu- tional weaknesses, particularly drug-related corruption. The GeM has taken steps to strengthen internal controls, including expanding the man- date of the Attorney General's Office's (PGR) confidence control center and investigating numerous individual cases of suspected corruption. One such investigation implicated former Quintana Roe Governor Mario Villanueva, currently a fugitive from iustice. President Zedillo has made combating cor- ruption a national priority, but he acknowledged success will take time. The USG and GeM cooperated closely on a wide range of law enforce- ment and drug abuse prevention efforts in \177999, guided by a National Drug Strategy agreed to in \177998 and accompanying PMEs. The first formal eval- uation of the PMEs was completed in December 1999. Significant maritime seizures in the final seven months of year demonstrated enhanced U.S.- Mexican cooperation, as did agreement by the two countries in November to establish a new interdiction working group under the binational High- Level Contact Group on Drug Control (HLCG). The USG provided technical and material support and training to Mexican agencies in furtherance of the GOM's iustice sector modernization initiative, demand reduction programs and other efforts. In \177999, the USG and GeM continued to work closely on fugitive issues. The GeM extradited \1774 fugitives to the United States, including two Mexi- can national drug traffickers, one of whom was also sought for the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. In keeping with its historic \177996 decision to begin approving Mexican nationals for extradition in appropriate cases, the GeM appealed, with mixed results, several Mexican appellate court deci- sions barring extradition. The GeM has appealed to the Mexican Supreme Court a case which could resolve conflicting decisions by lower appellate courts and, thus, expedite delivery of fugitives in the future. Regrettably, Mexico has yet to extradite a maior Mexican national drug trafficker. The USG and GeM are committed at the highest levels to continued co- operation in efforts to defeat and dismantle heavily armed and well-fi- nanced trans-border drug trafficking organizations. In recent years, the two governments have constructed an unprecedented framework for coordina- tion, a mechanism for evaluation, and fora for regular consultation on counter-drug issues. Through daily working-level interaction between counterpart agencies, policy-level discussions in the HLCG and other bilat- eral entities, and collaboration in multilateral groups, the two governments are finding increasingly productive ways to work together against the for- midable threat drug trafficking poses to both nations. Nigeria Nigeria has failed to fully meet the criteria for cooperation with the United States on counter-drug matters and has not taken adequate steps on 374
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