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SecurityCornerMexico.com Recommended READING: AMERICANS Arrested abroad: a rare glimpse of trips gone wrong, BRITISH Nationals Arrested Abroad Also, 
.. Of the 3,200 British Nationals imprisoned abroad, over a third are held for drug offences. There are concerns that a growing number of Britons, especially young people, are becoming involved in taking, carrying or dealing in drugs whilst on holiday. Diplomats press Mexico on jailed Canadian woman: Globeandmail.com Ottawa -- Canadian diplomats have expressed their "deep concern" to Mexico about the case of Brenda Martin, a Canadian who has languished in a Mexican jail for more than two years but has not yet gone to trial. A diplomatic note, sent yesterday afternoon, followed a court decision March 7 that Ms. Martin will have to face trial in Mexico. The note "reiterates Canada's deep concern about the status and well-being of Ms. Martin in light of her lengthy imprisonment," according to Foreign Affairs officials ..Thousands of Canadians are imprisoned in foreign countries. Most of them are in the United States; the rest are in prisons in almost 100 other countries. The criminal justice system in many countries is different from that in Canada. This does not mean that those systems are inferior: Canada Foreign Affairs and International Trade. More RELATED Information, stories below.
Published: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 Re: Life Of A Citizen Hangs In Balance, John Ivison, March 15. Our son, Bert, was released from the Dubai Central Prison a week before Christmas, having served about eight months of a four-year sentence for drug possession. Bert was returning from serving 13 months in Kandahar as an anti-narcotics officer for the Afghan government. He had two harvested poppy seed pods in his luggage as souvenirs -- a dumb move, we all agree -- and he told the police that he had them when detained. As apparently was the case with Brenda Martin, he also was lied to by the police and charged after being told he need only sign a straightforward statement. When he went to trial there was no interpreter, no chance to defend himself and no contact with his lawyer. The trial was over in about three minutes . No one from the Canadian consulate appeared at the trial -- in fact, there was virtually no help for Bert (or us) from the consulate for weeks. The main reason for the inattention from the consulate was that the office is seriously understaffed and has been for years. Bert and all his cellmates were subjected to an orchestrated beating by thuggish guards with German Shepherds in early August. We kept quiet about it, thinking that adverse publicity would embarrass the United Arab Emirates government and cause them to take it out on Bert. Within a matter of weeks of Bert's detention, Helena Guergis, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, started worked on Bert's behalf, making sure we received regular briefings. We felt absolutely certain that all that was needed to free Bert was for Stephen Harper to pick up the bloody phone. And when Foreign Affairs told us that was not going to happen and explained why, we understood the reasoning. Mr. Ivison seems to be taking a rather righteous approach to the Brenda Martin case. While we wince each time we hear her pleading and desperate voice, we also wince when people harshly criticize the Mexican judicial system. With Canada's recent run of prison releases for wrongful convictions, we perhaps should reflect a bit before trashing another country's judicial system. Such criticism can possibly do harm to people we are trying to help. Charlie and Louise Tatham, Duntroon, Ont. Canadian, Mexican ministers to meet on Martin jailing Published: Monday, March 17, 2008 EDMONTON -- Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier will meet with his Mexican counterpart Monday in Washington to try find a resolution to the high-profile case of imprisoned Canadian Brenda Martin. Supporters of the emaciated and suicidal former resident of Trenton, Ont., say there is a quick and easy solution to free her from the Guadalajara prison where she has languished without trial for more than two years. "Under the Mexican constitution, the executive council [of Mexico's cabinet] has the power to expel any foreigner who has become inconvenient for Mexico," Ms. Martin's Toronto lawyer, Guillermo Cruz Rico said Sunday. Ms. Martin has certainly become inconvenient for both Mexico and the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The scene of Ms. Martin sobbing uncontrollably while pleading for her life have been played and replayed in the media for weeks. Hundreds of angry Canadians have contacted the government and their MPs demanding her release and websites are springing up calling for a boycott of Mexican tourism and trade. Bowing to public pressure, the government quietly removed junior minister Helena Guergis from Ms. Martin's file last week. Mr. Bernier responded immediately, calling Patricia Espinosa, Mexico's foreign affairs minister, and following that up with a diplomatic note. Mr. Bernier issued the diplomatic note in direct response to a ruling by a Mexican court earlier this week that found Ms. Martin's constitutional rights had not been violated. Her lawyers had claimed she was not provided with an approved translator either by police or the courts in contravention of both Mexican and international law. Mr. Bernier could not be reached for comment Sunday. After reviewing the 400-page ruling, Ms. Martin's lawyer said he found absolutely no justification for rejecting her constitutional challenge. Bizarrely, the judge in the case claimed Ms. Martin had signed a confession, admitting to her crimes. Mr. Cruz said there is nothing in her court file that shows she confessed to anything. Ms. Martin's case grew even more bizarre when Canwest News Service revealed that Mexico's top prosecutor, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos had personally visited Ms. Martin in prison and, in front of a Canadian consular official, berated her for making the constitutional challenge and warned her not to appeal. Mr. Santiago also told her the judge in her criminal case had already written his decision, which shocked Mr. Cruz since he had yet to file his defence in the case. The visit from the deputy attorney general and the unsolicited legal advice, without Ms. Martin having legal representation present, was "extremely irregular," Mr. Cruz said diplomatically. Liberal consular services critic Dan McTeague was less diplomatic. "The fix is in," Mr. McTeague said. He called on Mr. Harper to pick up the phone and call Mexican president Felipe Calderon and demand she be released because of the numerous breaches of her rights. Ms. Martin was employed as a chef for a former Albertan, Alyn Richard Waage, in Puerto Vallarta for 10 months in 2001. Waage was operating an Internet fraud scheme at the time. He was eventually arrested, and is serving a 10-year sentence in an American jail. Five years after Waage's arrest, Ms. Martin was charged with money laundering and being part of a criminal conspiracy. Although Waage has provided a sworn affidavit stating Ms. Martin had no involvement or knowledge of his operations, she has remained in jail since Feb. 17, 2006. Ms. Martin's lawyers have said there is no evidence in the investigative file to support the charges against Ms. Martin and they say the breaches of her right to due process are blatant. Ms. Martin can't understand why the Mexican government is apparently so intent on keeping her in prison. "I am a nobody, I am a nothing," she said Friday. "I was the chef for Christ sakes and all I got was $26,000 in severance pay. That's it, that's all. Why won't they just let me go? Ms. Martin's childhood friend, Deb Tieleman, said Sunday that Mexico's Ambassador to Canada, Emilio Goicoechea Luna, is very concerned about Ms. Martin's deteriorating physical and mental condition. "He wants to find a solution and get Brenda out of there as soon as possible," Ms. Tieleman said. "He doesn't believe she can last much longer." Mr. Cruz, a constitutional law expert and university lecturer in his native Mexico, said the president could release Ms. Martin in one day if he wished. "If they are seriously looking for a solution, this is it," Mr. Cruz said. "They just need to make the decision." Edmonton Journal
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John Ivison: No justice for Brenda Martin in MexicoHelena Guergis, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was insistent this week that justice should be allowed to take its course in the case of Brenda Martin, the Canadian woman who has been imprisoned in Mexico for more than two years awaiting trial on money laundering charges.
Yet the events of the past few days have offered more proof that justice as we know it does not exist in Mexico, a country where you are judged guilty until proven innocent. It’s a tragedy for Ms. Martin that Mexican prosecutors haven’t been as scrupulous about due process as the Secretary of State.
On Monday, she met with the deputy attorney general for Mexico -- one Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos -- who told her that her only quick route out of the jail cell she has been sharing with up to eight convicted felons had been turned down. This constitutional challenge, or amparo, was based on Ms. Martin’s contention that she was questioned in Spanish without the benefit of an interpreter or a lawyer and signed a document, which the Mexicans say is an admission of guilt, without understanding what it contained.
Canada’s consular-general in Mexico, Robin Dubeau, acted as interpreter at the meeting where Mr. Santiago told Ms. Martin her challenge was groundless.
According to Ms. Martin’s friend, Debra Tieleman, who spoke to Mr. Dubeau, Mr. Santiago also told her that if she revised her amparo it would lengthen her time in jail by at least five months -- in essence, bullying a woman already in a fragile state of mind into doing what he wanted. Quite why our consular-general did not insist that Ms. Martin have a lawyer present is not clear.
To add further insult to already grevous injury, Mr. Santiago is the same official who headed the special investigative unit that looked into the scam that led to Ms. Martin being flung in jail on charges that appear dubious in the extreme. Ms. Martin worked for 10 months in 2001 as a chef a man called Alyn Waage. She was subsequently accused of helping Waage defraud $60-million in an internet investment swindle. Mr. Waage is currently in prison in the United States, serving a 10-year sentence, and has confirmed in a written affidavit that Ms. Martin was not involved in the scheme.
So here we have a man who charged Ms. Martin with money laundering and criminal conspiracy, now advising her not to appeal the amparo and to proceed straight to criminal trial. Ms. Martin’s lawyer was not present at the meeting and she was sedated by injection before it began because she’s been on a suicide watch. What’s more, Ms. Tieleman says her friend was told by Mr. Santiago that the judge in the criminal case is ready to render a verdict -- before her lawyer has had a chance to file her defence.
If that’s justice, I’m a banana.
The government simply has to raise its game or this woman is going to die in a Mexican prison. There are signs of some movement. Ms. Guergis has been relieved of the file and has been noticeable by her absence in the House of Commons this week. This should be an issue where the Opposition performs its constitutional role of holding the government to account. Yet most Question Period’s have been dominated by the puerile fishing expedition for evidence that Stephen Harper is a criminal mastermind who bribed a dying MP to lend his vote. The only question on Thursday on the Martin case came from Conservative MP, Rick Norlock, which allowed Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, who has taken charge of the file, to say that he has sent the Mexican government a diplomatic note demanding that Ms. Martin’s rights are respected.
Well, clearly they have not been, so what’s next? Ms. Martin’s rights have been violated under Mexican and international law. The Prime Minister would be justified on those grounds if he picked up the phone to Mexican president Felipe Calderon, with whom he has warm relations, and asked him to send Ms. Martin home on the next available flight.
Most of the flap and doodle that passes for scandal in Ottawa is of little interest to most Canadians. But, judging by my mail bag and the correspondence received by the Edmonton Journal’s tenacious Charles Rusnell, this is an issue that has gripped many, many people. This government will be held liable if it ends unhappily.
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Mexico: Where quiet diplomacy fails, the Canadian Perspective
Ronaldo Schemidt, AFP, Getty Images: Tourists walk at the archaeological site of Teotihuacan, "The City of the Gods" in Mexico. Thursday, March 13, 2008 Re: It's 'Buyer Beware' Going To Mexico, John Ivison, March 11. Thanks for the strong column on Brenda Martin. I've spent months in Mexico on vacation and I've felt completely safe with the ordinary folks who live there; it's the police and petty bureaucrats that terrified me. It seems to me that Mexican officials neglect due process merely because they can. As John Ivison points out, our "tradition" of quiet diplomacy was earlier exposed as a farce in the William Sampson case. Clearly we need a more robust "tradition" in order to ensure that Canadians are afforded due process and fair treatment. We have leverage, as there are areas of Mexico that depend utterly on Canadian travellers. With the downturn in the U.S. economy, that dependency will only be heightened. Craig McGuigan, Nanaimo, B.C. Tuesday, March 11, 2008 (SecurityCornerMexico.com in Readers' Comments, HERE) 
Glenn Bradbury/Canwest News Service: Liberal consular affairs critic Dan McTeague with Brenda Martin inside the Puente Grande Women's Prison in Guadalajara, Mexico, in this undated photo. Martin story should put a chill on tourismOTTAWA -With snow becoming a four-letter word for many Canadians, you might be glad to know you can get away to the sun in Guadalajara, Mexico, for around $600. Then again, if you've read about the case of Brenda Martin, who has been languishing in a Mexican jail for the past two years without trial, you might decide that you are better off cold of feet but safely swaddled by the Canadian justice system. Ms. Martin, 51, is a victim of a medieval judicial system, bureaucratic indifference and political lethargy. She has been in jail awaiting trial for two years and two months in Guadalajara -- for the first 18 months without any official contact from anyone at Canada's consulate in the city. Her "crime" was that she worked as a chef for a convicted fraudster, Alyn Waage, who bilked investors worldwide out of about $60-million. He bribed his way out of Mexico and is currently serving a 10-year sentence in an American prison. While in Waage's employ, Ms. Martin argued with her former boss and was given a one-year severance package of $28,000. After re-investing this sum, she was charged by the Mexican authorities with money-laundering and being part of a criminal conspiracy -- even though Waage has provided a sworn affidavit saying she is innocent. She was not provided with an interpreter during questioning, even though she does not speak Spanish. Her lawyers say there is no evidence of any wrong-doing. Since being incarcerated, she has lost one-third of her body weight and is now on suicide watch, having spent two years crammed in a tiny cell with up to eight other women, including a convicted murderer. This is in direct contravention of an international agreement, which says untried prisoners should be kept segregated from the general prison population. Yesterday, a federal judge rejected a constitutional challenge of her treatment, meaning she now faces a criminal trial. The political blame for this disgrace lands squarely at the feet of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Helena Guergis. She claims Canadian consular officials have been in contact with Ms. Martin more than 75 times and that the Canadian government has taken steps to ensure she receives regular medical attention. In January, Ms. Guergis travelled to Mexico and met with that country's attorney-general, foreign minister and other officials and asked for Ms. Martin's legal proceedings to be expedited. Despite being 20 minutes from Ms. Martin's prison cell, she did not visit her. "That's not my job. There are 13 Canadians in Mexican jails and if I visit one, I have to visit them all," she said in an interview last night. "It's not my job to meet them -- it's my job to advocate for them." She said there is a very limited role for the government in this case. "We cannot go in and take her home and that is what her request has been.... I'm not going to pass judgment on a judge's decision." Ms. Guergis says she feels bad for Ms. Martin. Not as bad as Ms. Martin feels, one would wager. The Secretary of State's efforts were taken right out of the consular playbook -- a minimal response that emphasizes the privacy of the individual case, the inability to interfere in the judicial system of another country and the reassurance that the prisoner has access to consular services -- which are often about as much use as a pulled tooth. As in the case of William Sampson, the Canadian who endured years of torture in a Saudi jail, Canada's quiet diplomacy has been found lacking. The policy is predicated on a rigid belief in justice--as long as it doesn't adversely impact relations with a trading partner. Both Dan McTeague, the Liberal MP who performed the role of "point man" for Canadians in trouble abroad for the Paul Martin government, and NDP critic Paul Dewar are scathing about Ms. Guergis's performance--criticism that goes far beyond the usual partisan carping. "This is a so-called Secretary of State who is given to condescending remarks and running away from cameras when she is asked to explain herself," Mr. McTeague said. "She didn't go to the prison when she was only 18 minutes away to see a woman who's been mistreated by a judicial system as random as the weather." Ms. Guergis cannot be blamed for the Mexican justice system. In fact, the federal government states in large, bold letters on its Web site: "Under Mexican law, you are considered guilty until proven innocent." But Canadians have a right to expect the government to go to the wall for them if there is a miscarriage of justice as blatant as in the Brenda Martin case. "Is the government saying that when you go to Mexico 'buyer beware -- we can't help you there?' " asked Mr. Dewar. "I'm not sure I would book a flight to Mexico tomorrow." Both Mr. McTeague and Mr. Dewar are calling for Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier or Prime Minister Stephen Harper to issue a diplomatic note of protest demanding Ms. Martin's release on the grounds that Mexico has broken a number of treaty obligations -- including the lack of an interpreter, the lack of segregation from convicted felons and the length of the pretrial period. As Mr. Sampson said on his release from a Saudi prison, quiet diplomacy only works when you have influence and you are willing to use it. Mexico is a country that receives a million Canadian tourists a year -- we have influence there. If Canada were to threaten to issue a travel advisory to Canadians, Brenda Martin would likely be out of prison in a week. It's time to use that influence.
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Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.  Harper calls Mexican president to discuss caseOTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made a personal intervention on behalf of a suicidally depressed woman locked up in a Mexican prison. The Prime Minister called his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon to discuss the case of Brenda Martin. He informed the Mexican president that he will send his minister responsible for multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, to visit the Ontario woman in a Guadalajara prison. Mr. Kenney will be the first member of the Harper government to meet with Martin. Former prime minister Paul Martin and Liberal MP Dan McTeague have already visited her. Government sources confirmed the Prime Minister and Kenney's involvement in the case Monday. A spokesman for Harper refused to discuss the Prime Minister's phone call with Calderon, although he did not deny that the conversation took place. “In two years we have had over 100 contacts with Ms. Martin and continue to raise her case up to and including the president of Mexico,” said Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas. He noted that Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier also discussed the case Monday with his Mexican counterpart during a trip to Washington. Mr. Bernier said he received assurances that Ms. Martin's lawyers will be able to talk with the country's deputy attorney general. Mexican officials, meantime, said the case “is to be concluded shortly,” according to official reports. Ms. Martin has been in prison for more than two years without a trial on allegations involving a massive investment scam, says she's innocent and has threatened to kill herself if she's not released. But Mexico is blaming Ms. Martin's own lawyers for her lengthy stay, saying they didn't separate her case from others accused of fraud despite having the legal ability to do it. “In not doing so, she remained linked to them and included in the global file comprising 25,000 pages,” said the embassy statement. It noted Martin was working illegally in Mexico when she was arrested but was never charged for that. Ms. Martin, 51, denies any involvement in a $60-million pyramid investment scheme that scammed about 15,000 people in dozens of countries. Her former boss Alyn Waage, who was convicted in the case, also says Martin wasn't involved. She was employed as a chef for Mr. Waage in Puerto Vallarta for 10 months in 2001. Mr. Waage was operating the Internet fraud scheme at the time. Ms. Martin wasn't charged until five years after the arrest of Mr. Waage, who has provided a sworn affidavit saying she didn't know anything about what he was doing. She is facing counts of money laundering and being part of a criminal conspiracy.  © Copyright 2008 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Mexico says jailed Canadian confessed: 'I never admitted to anything because I have done nothing wrong,' says Brenda MartinEDMONTON - Mexican authorities are now claiming that a Canadian woman who has been imprisoned without trial for more than two years signed a statement in which she confessed to her alleged crimes.But Brenda Martin said she confessed to nothing."I told them I was innocent," Martin said in a telephone interview Friday from a Guadalajara prison. "I don't know what I signed because it was in Spanish. Nothing was ever translated into English for me and I never had a proper interpreter. But I never admitted to anything because I have done nothing wrong."The claim that Martin confessed to charges of money laundering and being part of a criminal conspiracy surfaced for the first time earlier this week, when a Mexican judge ruled against Martin's constitutional challenge - called an amparo - to have the charges against her thrown out. Her lawyers had argued that her legal rights under Mexican and international law were violated because she was not provided with a translator by police during their investigator or during the court process.Martin said Mexican police told her in 2001 that she was only a witness in a criminal case involving her former employer. She gave two voluntary statements to police. For the first, police used a fellow employee at the Puerto Vallarta jewelry store, where Martin worked, as a translator. For the second, Martin, who knows only rudimentary Spanish, had no translator.Guillermo Cruz Rico, Martin's Toronto-based lawyer, said he was shocked that the judge in the amparo case somehow ruled that she had confessed to the charges."I reviewed the documents (Martin's statements to police) and she never admitted she was part of a criminal organization," Cruz said Friday. "She did not say she was guilty of anything. She said she got money from her employer and she did not know that it came from a criminal organization."Martin, now 51, was employed as a chef for a former Albertan, Alyn Richard Waage, in Puerto Vallarta for 10 months in 2001. Waage was operating an Internet fraud scheme at the time though he pretended to be an investor. He was eventually arrested and is serving a 10-year sentence in an American jail. Five years after Waage's arrest, Martin was charged with money laundering and being part of a criminal conspiracy. Although Waage has provided a sworn affidavit stating Martin had no involvement or knowledge of his operations she has remained in jail since Feb. 17, 2006."I looked at the judge's interpretation and it looks to me like she is just trying to justify the case brought by the attorney general," Cruz saidCruz and his father, who is one of Mexico's top lawyers, filed an 80-page document outlining their arguments in the amparo. Cruz said the judge, who issued an 800-page ruling in response, did not refer to any of the evidence presented in Martin's legal brief.Cruz said he will file an appeal of the amparo ruling, despite the fact that Martin was warned not to do so by a Mexican justice official.Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos flew to Guadalajara from Mexico City to personally deliver the news that Martin's amparo application had failed. Canada's consular-general in Mexico, Robin Dubeau, acted as interpreter at the meeting. Dubeau gave Martin's childhood friend, Debra Tieleman, a briefing on the meeting based on notes he had taken. According to Dubeau, Santiago told Martin her amparo application was groundless and that filing an appeal would lengthen her time in jail by at least five months.Santiago also told her he had discussed her case with the judge in her criminal case and was told that judge had already written the judgment, despite the fact that Martin's lawyers had yet to file their defence in that case.Cruz said he has learned that Santiago is the same justice official who headed the special police unit that investigated the scam that led to Martin's arrest, which was based in part on the statements Martin gave without the benefit of either an interpreter or legal representation. He then became responsible for prosecuting the case.Cruz said Santiago's visit to Martin was "quite irregular." He said he will consider filing a complaint against Santiago but for now he is concentrating the appeal."The only thing we are asking for is a fair trial and fair treatment for Brenda Martin," Cruz said. "We want an impartial entity to review the amparo because if we have to go back to the criminal case, we think we have very little chance of winning.For the second straight day, Foreign Affairs Minister refused to comment on Martin's treatment by Santiago.Liberal consular services critic Dan McTeague said it's clear that the "fix is in" in Martin's case and he called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to personally intervene with Mexican president Felipe Calderon to immediately secure Martin's release.© Edmonton Journal 2008 MORE RELATED STORIESDeath penalties for drug-related crimes may seem like a harsh form of justice but in Vietnam a conviction for drug possession can lead to public execution. It's reported the Vietnamese government does this to deter people from getting involved in the country's increasing drug trade. It's a practice criticized by human rights groups. Altogether about 2300 Canadian citizens are imprisoned in foreign countries, the majority of them in the United States. Most are in jail for drug related offences. Sentenced to Death in Saudia Arabia: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 
Beheading of Canadian in Saudi Arabia still on Canadian Justice System Political Affairs Sponsorgate 
NUMBER OF CANADA POLICE-REPORTED INCIDENTS BY TYPE OF DRUG, 1996 TO 2000 | | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | | Marijuana | 47,234 | 47,933 | 50,917 | 60,011 | 66,171 | | Cocaine | 11,478 | 11,468 | 12,183 | 11,963 | 12,812 | | Heroin | 1,287 | 1,235 | 1,323 | 1,323 | 1,226 | | Other drugs* | 5,730 | 5,957 | 6,509 | 6,845 | 7,736 | | Total | 65,729 | 66,593 | 70,922 | 80,142 | 87,945 |
DEA: National Drug Assessment 2008, Canada MDMA production by Asian DTOs in Canada has increased significantly since 2004, fueling MDMA distribution by Canada-based Asian DTOs in U.S. drug markets. Reporting from Canadian and U.S. law enforcement officials as well as recent seizure data suggests that MDMA production in Canada by Canada-based Asian DTOs has increased sharply, particularly since 2004. RCMP reporting indicates that Asian DTOs--primarily Chinese but also some Vietnamese groups--in Canada have significantly increased MDMA production, particularly in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. According to RCMP seizure data, the number of MDMA laboratory seizures in Canada has remained relatively stable since 2004 (see Table 15); however, law enforcement reporting indicates that the capacity of Canadian MDMA laboratories has increased greatly. For example, RCMP reports that all of the laboratories seized in 2006 were large-capacity MDMA superlabs; five of these laboratories were capable of producing at least 22 pounds per production cycle. The RCMP estimates that the combined production from all Canadian MDMA laboratories exceeds 2 million tablets per week. Table 15. Number of MDMA Laboratory Seizures in Canada, 2002-2006 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
|---|
| 11 | 10 | 18 | 17 | 16 |
Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Much of the MDMA produced in Canada is intended for distribution by Canada-based Asian groups in U.S. drug markets. The increasing flow of MDMA from Canada is widely reported by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies along the U.S.-Canada border, and MDMA seizure data in Northern Border states appear to support this contention. According to the Federal-wide Drug Seizure System (FDSS), the amount of MDMA seized in states that border Canada has increased since 2002; the largest amounts were seized in Michigan, New York, and Washington (see Table 16). According to the RCMP, Chinese DTOs that produce MDMA in Canada typically provide the drug to Vietnamese criminal groups that smuggle it into the United States for subsequent distribution. Consequently, the increased flow of MDMA from Canada to the United States by Canada-based Asian DTOs has resulted in Canada's becoming the primary source of MDMA to U.S. drug markets. In fact, over half of the HIDTA Program Offices (17 of 32) reported in 2007 that Canada was the origin for most MDMA available in their areas. According to the World Tourism Organization Mexico has one of the largest tourism industries in the world, in 2005 it was the Seventh main destination worldwide, being by far the only country in Latin America to be in the top 25. Mexico's middle/lower class usually promotes national tourism, compared to the middle/higher class that travels worldwide especially Europe and the United States but also Asia and South America, in fact Mexico is the twenty-third tourism spender in the world, again being the highest in Latin America. Comment by J Chávez 555. March 14, 2008 RE: John Ivison: No justice for Brenda Martin in Mexico: On Quote: "This is the same old case we see all the time here in Mexico, and frankly we are tired of it. An old american or canadian lady gets caught doing something illegal, she is arrested, she starts crying and bitching about our laws, our jails, and our system. And she gets all the attention of the world just because shes an "old, innocent, white lady". Guess what? there are laws in this country, millions and millions of vistors come here every year and have wonderful times because they respect the law. Ignorance, is NOT defence agains breaking the law, and this lady just like so many others that have used the same tactic to get out of trouble, should do her time. if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. By the way, we don't live from tourist dollars like most Americans and Canadians think, this is a 1 trillion economy and a very small portion of that comes from tourism. So for those that want to "boycott" this nation, go ahead, we have millions of respectful tourists from all over the world that come here all the time and have wonderful times. So stay home if you think you deserve preferential treatment, because i sure as hell don't think foreigners should get breaks when they break the laws, because i sure don't get them.." See all comments, HERE.
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