US official warns drug traffickers will expand in Caribbean as Latin America cracks down

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The Caribbean will likely see a surge in drug-trafficking activity by 2015 as operations move slowly out of Central America due to an international crackdown, a top U.S. State Department official said Wednesday. William Brownfield, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement, said he believes drug traffickers squeezed out of Mexico, Central America and South America will target the Caribbean because it's spacious and allows them to remain undercover and take advantage of weak law enforcement in certain countries. “What are they going to do, all close down and run beach cabanas in Mexico and Colombia? I don't think so,” he said. “Logic suggests they will move to the old routes of the 70s and 80s. Those people are still around.”