In 2007 about $207 million was found in the home of a suspected cartel supplier of meth-precursor chemicals. The pile, which weighed more than 4,500 pounds, is considered the largest drug cash seizure in history.
North America clearly has a very big meth problem on its hands, according to the 2013 World Drug Report by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
From 2010 to 2011 worldwide seizures of methamphetamine by authorities grew by 73% — from 51 tons to 88 tons — and 61% (54 tons) of all seizures were reported by Mexico and the U.S.
From the report (emphasis ours):
The highest methamphetamine seizures were reported by Mexico, where seizures more than doubled, from 13 tons to 31 tons [i.e. the most in the world], and surpassed for the first time those of the United States which seized 23 tons in 2011, up from 15 tons in 2010. ...
Most methamphetamine laboratories continue to be reported by the United States, where their numbers quadrupled from 2,754 in 2010 to 11,116 in 2011.
Basically, Mexico and the U.S. combined are a meth powerhouse.
In 2007 Mexican authorities made the largest drug cash seizure in history when they discovered $207 million in the home of a suspected cartel supplier of meth-precursor chemicals.
And since 2007 Mexican cartels have been pumping exceptionally cheap and high quality meth into the U.S. for a profit of $5 billion a year.
From 2007 to 2011, the purity of available meth in the U.S. skyrocketed while the price tumbled from $290 per pure gram to less than $90 — a combination that hooks people on the fast, intense, and long-lasting high.
In October the DEA estimated that cartel meth — which is 90% pure — makes up for as much as 80% of the meth sold in the U.S.
In December 2011 officials seized 252 tons of precursor chemicals for manufacturing meth at one of the Pacific ports used by cartels to supply their superlabs (where they make industrial volumes of meth)[..]
