Feds claim U.S. cocaine supply drops

Mexico's crackdown on drug traffickers has helped cut cocaine supplies in the U.S., the White House drug czar said Monday as the Bush administration prepared to seek an aid package to help Mexico fight drugs.

John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, declined to elaborate on the aid measures, which he said would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

The first piece of the previously announced plan is expected to be laid out before Congress within days, he said.

"There has never been a better time" for such an aid package to Mexico, said Walters, who plans to tout the figures Tuesday at a meeting with federal, state and local authorities in San Diego.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed more than 20,000 soldiers and federal police agents in regions plagued by drug violence since he took office last year and extradited several high-level traffickers to the U.S.

U.S. law enforcement agencies first noted cocaine declines in the Northeast around March. Prices have nearly doubled in some Northeast and Midwestern cities, Walters said.

A gram of pure cocaine cost $118.70 from April to June, up 24 percent from the $95.89 reported for the previous three months, Walters said, citing figures from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Steven Karch, a forensics expert in Berkeley, Calif., said he had not seen the price figures Walters cited but was skeptical about the decline in supply.

"I hope they're right. Every time we hear this, it turns out to be business as usual," said Karch, author of a series of books on drugs and drug abuse, including "A Brief History of Cocaine."

About 90 percent of cocaine in the U.S. enters the country through Mexico, with much of it originating in Colombia, where the U.S. has sent billions in drug-fighting aid with mixed results.

Walters credited enforcement by U.S. and Colombian authorities with contributing to the recent price cuts.

But "the big weight added in the last six months is Mexico," Walters said. "Mexico has been doing things they've never done before."

Citing law enforcement intelligence reports, Walters said 37 cities showed drops in cocaine supplies, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles and New York.