1.
GV Lorry with drugs to site
0.05

2.
SV Armed guards hold back pressmen & spectators as drigs are unloaded & chopped up (2 shots)
0.22

3.
SV PAN Pile of drugs
0.34

4.
CU ZOOM pills emptied onto pile
0.53

5.
CU Bottles of pills (2 shots)
1.00

6.
SV Firemen throw petrol over pile
1.01

7.
SV Official lights bonfire & crowd retreats as drugs blaze
1.22



Initials SGM/2241 SGM/2231



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Marijuana weighing 3 1/2 tons and 18 million amphetamines and barbiturates were burned by Mexican police near Tijuana on Thursday (7 October). The drugs were confiscated by the police from smugglers and illegal drug users. A convoy of military trucks was needed to bring the drugs to the site for burning outside the city. The burning was the largest so far since the Mexican anti-drug campaign got into full swing in 1968.

SYNOPSIS: This scene has become almost a ritual since 1968 - a convoy of military trucks with armed guards brings confiscated drugs to a site outside Tijuana in Mexico. Here, the drugs are burned by Mexican police. Three and a half tons of marijuana, confiscated from smugglers or illegal users...and 18 million pills - amphetamines an barbiturates. These are used as stimulants and depressants. The envelopes contain LSD, Cocaine and Heroin.

These pills sell in the United States for 5 pills a dollar. Here in Mexico they sell for about 100 pills a dollar. Most of the pills confiscated by police were from smugglers bringing drugs into America. The catch is that most of them come from America in the first place. Legitimate pharmaceutical houses there sell to clients in Mexico, and from there the drugs are smuggled back across the border.

This is the largest burning of confiscated drugs since the Mexican anti-drug campaign got into full swing in 1968. But nobody thinks the flow of illegal drugs into America is anywhere near ending yet.