Mexican Drug Trade Is Violently on the Rebound

INTERNATIONAL April 1993

Culiacan, Mexico is now sometimes referred to as "Little Medellin" after the former center of the violent Colombian drug cartel that has terrorized Colombia (Tim Golden, "Violently, Drug Trafficking In Mexico Rebounds," New York Times, 3/8/93, no page).

In a recent two-month period, 80 people were slain in the Culiacan area in suspected drug-related violence. In Sinaloa state, where Culiacan is located, 7,000 murders have been recorded in the last 12 years, with the majority thought drug-related. Culiacan has grown to a city of 700,000. The average economic growth rate in Sinaloa over the last six years is 5.35 percent, much of which is explained by an influx of drug money, and the region is now viewed as the center of the Mexican drug trade.