A top Department of Homeland Security official told a House of Representatives committee that there is no need to designate Mexico’s drug gangs as foreign terrorist groups, as the U.S. already has strong laws against drug trafficking.
Speaking before the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Management, Grayling Williams, director of the Office of Counter-Narcotics Enforcement, rejected the proposal to add Mexican groups to the terrorist list, reports Proceso.
Amy Pope, an official with the Attorney General’s Office, agreed with Williams but highlighted the need to extradite drug dealers to U.S. for them to receive fitting sentences.
Meanwhile Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon made a speech to the 41st Conference of the Americas, and asked United States to work on stopping arms sales to Mexican criminals, stating that 84 percent of the arms seized in the country over the last four years were of U.S. origin.