Pubdate: Mon, 05 Mar 2001
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2001 The Dallas Morning News
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Author: Ricardo Sandoval

HERE'S THE DOPE

Mexico's Military Runs A Drug Museum, Which Has Its High And Low Points

MEXICO CITY - In a city with some of the world's finest museums, the 
hottest one is the toughest to get into.

It's Mexico's first official "narco-museum." It displays heroin and 
marijuana processing machinery, confiscated weaponry of infamous drug 
traffickers, and examples of oddball methods of smuggling drugs into the 
United States - such as buttock implants.

The idea behind the museum, which is run by the Mexican military, is to 
give recruits a taste of what they will be up against and what to look for 
when they hit the streets in search of illicit drugs.

Mexico's military plays an aggressive role in drug enforcement in support 
of federal police and anti-narcotic prosecutors. At least 25,000 soldiers 
are on regular drug patrol concentrated along Mexico's two coasts.

Yet despite the military's best efforts, Mexico is considered a haven for 
traffickers who move cocaine to the United States from South America, grow 
and export marijuana and heroin, and control most of the methamphetamine 
traffic in the United States.

Each spring Mexico complains to American politicians about their 
controversial drug-certification process, which requires the U.S. president 
to evaluate the efforts against drugs by developing nations. And each year, 
despite its complaints, Mexico shows off how many drug shipments it stopped 
and steps up arrests of traffickers - all to avoid trade sanctions 
triggered by decertification.

In this atmosphere, the narco-museum has caught on. After a Mexico City 
television crew was allowed a sneak peak, military officials began turning 
down daily requests for tours from the public.

In recent days, officials have begun considering tour requests from 
journalists.

But the museum's doors are not open to the public. The museum, officially 
called the Museum of Mind-altering Substances, is in Mexican military 
headquarters in Mexico City. And unlike at the Pentagon, there are no 
public tours of the Mexican Defense Secretariat.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration also operates a museum, which is 
open to the public by appointment at the agency's headquarters in 
Arlington, Va. But at the Mexican museum, only some military and federal 
police recruits and Mexican law students are permitted guided tours.

Defense officials have also invited foreign diplomats and visiting dignitaries.

"It is valuable for us to see exactly what Mexico is up against," said 
Leslie Kekana, South Africa's vice ambassador to Mexico before inspecting 
the automatic rifle taken from imprisoned drug lord Hector Luis "El Guero" 
Palma, inscribed with a swaying palm tree near the trigger.

"It gives you an appreciation of how tough this fight is."

The tour began at a plaque bearing the names of 380 Mexican soldiers - 
drivers and generals alike - who have died enforcing drug laws.

Once inside, an army captain quickly made it clear that almost everything 
inside was real, captured in raids on drug plantations, labs and the homes 
of smugglers. That's evident by the smell of chemical and drug residue at 
the bottom of glass bowls and tubing used for illicit drug processing.

Grisly photos of the buttock implants are also real, as are the 
consequences: The woman smuggler died of an overdose after one of the 
implants burst.

The captain also showed off other ways smugglers have tried to move their 
goods: in hollowed-out lumber, inside stone fountains, in paint drums with 
hidden compartments, in fake arm casts, and in a prosthetic device fitted 
on a woman to make her look pregnant.

The real highlight for visitors appeared to be a collection of weaponry 
confiscated from traffickers - from simple revolvers to rocket launchers. 
The showpieces: slain drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes' pistol, with 
gold-plated "ACF" initials, and fugitive narco Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's 
gold-handled gun.

But some displays also drift toward the absurd, such as a gaudy, solid-wood 
door into which an artisan carved the figure of a trafficker toting an 
automatic weapon and guarding a marijuana plantation.

Then there's the scale-model of a captured James Bond-style narco truck - 
equipped with tear gas dispensers and oil-slick bombs - and mannequins 
dressed up in cowboy hats, open shirts, and loud jewelry.

"That's the attire narcos prefer and should be viewed with suspicion," said 
the military docent.

Also simulated, for obvious reasons, is marijuana depicted in a homespun 
dehydrator. Pine needles and branches are the stand-ins.

The pale-faced mannequins clad in the cartoonish narco-garb drew chuckles. 
But the mood turned somber when the tour guide pointed at a child-sized 
mannequin whose overalls were covered with drug-laced stickers.

The captain grew emotional when he described how one child was induced to 
smuggle drugs in the tires of his small bicycle, and how young Mexican 
girls are sent into opium fields to make delicate incisions on poppy buds 
that draw out valuable resin. There are displays of the cut poppies and 
detailed descriptions of how the resin becomes heroin.

"How bad are these people who would use children this way?" the guide asked 
rhetorically. Children "are forced to smuggle for these terrible people, or 
they're being lured into taking drugs. ... That's why we're doing all this, 
to protect our children, our country's future."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom