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With regard to drug abuse prevention, the GOM ranks marijuana abuse first, followed by the abuse of inhalents and diverted pharmaceuticals. Wider media coverage of drug abuse in Mexico during the past year has heightened Mexican public's awareness about the domestic drug abuse problem. AID, INM and USIA have proposed a study to establish base line data on drug consumption in Mexico. In July, INM sent an expert team to discuss epidemiology issues with local officials and to recommend survey methods for collecting data. Washington agencies are also considering a drug abuse monitoring and epidemiology project in Mexico.
Of potentially equal importance, the military has organized a drug abuse campaign to educate the rural population about the dangers of being associated with narcotics trafficking.
NICARAGUA
There have been no new developments since submission of the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.
PANAMA
Summary.
The Panamanian Government made significant strides in the first half of 1987 against the major narcotics-related activities which occur in Panama, especially money-laundering and transshipment of
transshipment of precursor chemicals and cocaine. End Summary.
Money laundering, long one of the areas Of greatest concern in Panama, was dealt a severe blow by Operation Pisces, a three-year DEA investigation into money-laundering in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Panama.
In response to evidentiary documents prepared by DEA, the Panamian Government in May served court orders on 18 Panamanian banks freezing 54 accounts. Follow-up investigations by the Panama Defense Forces (PDF)
(PDF) identified and froze an additional 85 accounts containing funds suspected of originating in narcotics
trafficking.
ΤΟ combat the transit of precursor chemicals, another important area of concern, the PDF recently created a chemical control unit. In March, this unit seized 3,000 kgs. of potassium permanganate, an essential precursor chemical which could have yielded 30,000 kgs. of cocaine hydrochloride.