Pubdate: Mon, 05 Mar 2001 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2001 The Dallas Morning News Contact: P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265 Fax: (972) 263-0456 Feedback: http://dmnweb.dallasnews.com/letters/ Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Forum: http://forums.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads.pl 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." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom